“I can't say enough good things about working with Mintz Levin. The attorneys have provided a lot more than legal advice — they've provided support and encouragement, which is so critical for a start-up.”
Kim Ogden
Founder & Managing Director
Ventures for Hope
Social Enterprises Leverage Their Impact in Developing Countries
"Dolores" makes beaded jewelry to sustain herself and her sister in Santiago, Guatemala. "Virginia" in Kenya learned how to sew and make decorative pillows to provide for her extended family. Consumers in places like the United States can purchase what Dolores and Virginia make through retailers, like Ten Thousand Villages, that buy and resell fair trade products from artisans.
It's a business model that works best when Dolores and Virginia offer products that US consumers want to buy. That's what got Kim Ogden, founder and managing director of the nonprofit Ventures for Hope, thinking about how she could use her consulting skills, honed at Bain & Company, to help social enterprise nonprofits on the frontlines of job creation and other issues in developing countries.
"Her consulting work is something she could get paid for, and has been paid for in the past," says Mintz Levin attorney Lindsay Leone, who along with attorney Anthony Hubbard helped Kim form and establish the nonprofit social enterprise, "but Kim chooses to use her skills to benefit nonprofits."
With the help of Mintz Levin, Ventures for Hope achieved its 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status in July 2014, and has since been working closely with several nonprofits, providing valuable consulting and marketing services at no cost or for a nominal, contingent fee, including the production and distribution of a catalog to help these fair trade goods reach the right market.
"What was interesting about this project," says Anthony, "was helping this nonprofit knowing that it would have a positive multiplier effect for many nonprofits."
Another nonprofit social enterprise that Mintz Levin helped this past year is Sanergy. Sanergy builds healthy, prosperous communities by making hygienic sanitation accessible and affordable to residents in the slums of Nairobi by franchising its locally manufactured Fresh Life Toilets to individuals who run them as viable businesses. The lack of hygienic sanitation in informal settlements severely threatens the health of residents. Sanergy has safely removed over 6,600 tons of waste from these neighborhoods. Sanergy then processes the waste into usable by-products, including organic fertilizer, for use by local farmers.
The nonprofit helps the franchisees launch the toilets and provides ongoing training, marketing, and other support. Once in operation, franchisees, a large portion of whom are women, charge a nominal fee for use, creating a steady source of income for their families.
The Mintz Levin team included attorneys Kristin Gerber, Hannah Coman, and Tom Burton, who counseled Sanergy on its corporate governance and development efforts.
"Sanergy is not only raising awareness of the global sanitation crisis," says Kristin, "but it also is solving this systemic problem in a sustainable way."