Fast Company - Assignment Example

After viewing and evaluating the list of criteria to garner the Social Capitalist Awards, the report written by Miracky, Lieb, and Kulla (2007) revealed that the five critical components are: “Social Impact, Aspiration & Growth, Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Sustainability” (Miracky, Lieb, & Kulla, 2007, p. 1). Using these criteria, several organizations have remarkably been categorized as 5-year winners, to wit: ACCION International, City Year, Jumpstart, PATH, and Witness. The current essay hereby aims to identify why these five winners meet the evaluation criteria. In addition, the discourse would explore how these winners tell their stories, describe their mission, engage volunteers, and measure success.

ACCION International has consistently met the criteria for five years by offering microfinance access to credits that enable poverty-stricken individuals and groups to improve their ways of life and well-being. By reaching as many as “2.5 million active clients and is well on its way to surpassing 3 million by the end of 2007” (Fast Company: Accion, 2012, par. 3). Their long-term mission and goal of seeking ways by which millions would learn how to help themselves, this organization envisions the ideals of social responsibility on a more global scope.

CITY YEAR, an organization based in Boston, Massachusettes, has likewise met the five criteria by enjoining the youth in rendering services through various productive activities such as tutoring, organizing after-school and vacation programs, joining community activities, and engaging in physical service programs (Fast Company: City Year, 2012). This winner has exemplified the growth and active involvement of young leaders to complete one full year in service and has consistently manifested growth in membership, locations, and accomplishments. Accordingly, the organization has: “graduated more than 10,400 alumni; served 1,060,000 children; completed 16 million hours of service; partnered with more than 1050 corporations and 3,100 service organizations; and engaged more than 1,000,000 citizens in service” (Fast Company: City Year, 2012, par. 5).

JUMPSTART focuses on early education programs that aim to engage “preschool children from low-income communities in an intensive early education program to improve their cognitive and emotional development, ensuring they enter kindergarten prepared to succeed at grade level” (Fast Company: Jumpstart, 2012, par. 2). Through evaluations that indicate that Jumpstart students have remarkably demonstrated progress in terms of exemplifying enhanced literacy, language and social skills, this organization has garnered and met the required standards and criteria for the Social Capital Awards.

PATH boasts to be an organization designed to address global health (Fast Company: PATH, 2012). Their mission includes the creation of “real solutions for permanent change, such as health "technologies" for remote villages, immunization programs built side by side with the governments administering them, and cultural projects sparking dialogue and social change in communities at risk of HIV” (Fast Company: PATH, 2012, par. 2). They partner with both private and private organizations to achieve identified goals.

Finally, Witness utilizes the power of the video to enhance the public’s awareness of human rights abuses (Fast Company: Witness, 2012). As revealed, “WITNESS has partnered with human rights groups in more than 70 countries, bringing often unseen images, untold stories, and seldom heard voices to the attention of key decision-makers, the media, and the general public -- catalyzing grassroots activism, political engagement, and lasting change” (Fast Company: Witness, 2012, par. 1). They have indeed consistently met the criteria and standards posed by the Fast Company in recognizing achievements among leading social entrepreneurial organizations.