Gumball Capital

You may remember Courtney and Casey’s debut post this last May entitled “Skin in the Game.” Following up on the personal sacrifice and unyielding drive involved in starting a social venture, the founders of Wokai now share with us the logistics of managing and growing an idea into something concrete.

Q.) What steps did you take to transform the organization from an idea into a real, 501(c)3 nonprofit?

A.) Casey: Right off the bat, we were very lucky to have a lot of legal corporate sponsors, donating their time to help us get 501(c)(3) status. More difficult things for us involved taking an idea and a business plan into implementation with very little money. Courtney and I started the organization in March 2007, and it wasn’t until November 2007 that we even had a paid staff member.

Because we had such few resources and such big ideas, we decided to utilize a lot of volunteers. When we finished our business plan, we recruited over 10 college graduates working with us over 20 hours/week here in Beijing to start up the organization. To build our chapters in the US (San Francisco, New York, and Seattle), we put together a network of 70 volunteers, who mostly have full-time jobs and work on nights and weekends, to produce events, fundraising, and drive our public relations. We started our microfinance operations by learning how to evaluate microfinance institutions in China, conducting a lot of diligence, and finally forming partnerships with our Field Partners.

Simultaneous to all of this, we worked to build our website, the cruz of our operations, which involved finding people with expertise in web development, management, financial analysis, and microfinance.

A.) Courtney: Persistence! We went through the usual steps—team building, business plan, fundraising, getting sponsorship. But it took us over two years to build our website, chapters, and field partners. In the end, it is very little about the “plan” and everything about what you do when the plan doesn’t go as planned.

Q.) How do you draw on your personal background and your range of work and academic experiences when dealing in the everyday operations of running Wokai?

A.) Casey: More than my background in work experience and academics, I find myself drawing on general characteristics of who I am as a person. I very much enjoy entrepreneurship, I’m scrappy (most entrepreneurs are), and I like finding answers to tough questions that aren’t obvious. These characteristics, as well as having a lot of energy, are very helpful in reaching success as a social entrepreneur.

A.) Courtney: Wokai is like nothing I have ever done. I am learning as I go with this one. Some skills that help with that are my business analysis skills from venture capital and attention to detail from banking. But the most important skill is my attitude. I am a forever optimist and have not been crushed yet!

Q.) How do you collaborate or compete with other organizations working in this space? What sets you apart?

A.) Casey: In the long term however we want to work on creating a model that provides a p2p connection for people who want to create social change in China, through microfinance but through other mechanisms as well (such as education, health care provision, and green energy utilization).

However, right now, we are very similar to Kiva and we have a very positive relationship with their organization. They’ve supported our work by sharing ideas, advising us, and sharing information. I think collaboration between organizations in our sector is key for Wokai.

What sets Wokai apart is that we are the first p2p platform for China, and over time we’ll expand from microfinance into more sectors and still maintain that p2p connection. While there are other organizations out there targeting specific causes, we’ll continue to innovate to offer a new way for people around the world to give to a host of causes in China.

A.) Courtney: In microfinance (MF), we have been called a “Chiva”—Chinese Kiva—and that essentially describes our platform today. We are putting China MF on the map, and no one else is doing that. But actually, we want to highlight where Wokai is headed: we’re becoming a model, connector, and networker for the greater non-profit sector in China. China has 1/15 the number of non-profits as the US and 5 times the number of people to serve. They need a champion, and Wokai will be that Champion!

In China, we have really classified ourselves as being the first p2p giving platform for China. No other Asia nonprofit allows someone to take $10 today and give it to someone in China tomorrow.

Q.) Where do you see Wokai in the future? What social impact do you hope to have in the world?

A.) Casey: In the near future (2009) I want to get Wokai out there, through online social media, more traditional media, and build our contributor base. We plan on having exponential growth, with slow growth in year one as we get Wokai’s name out (hopefully 3000 contributors online and supporting 600 recipients in rural China) but then scaling our model to higher numbers. In three years, we want to raise around $2.2 million from over 17,000 contributors worldwide, expand our chapter network and grow our recipient base in rural china. In five years, we want to fund over 32,000 recipients from contributions by over 100,000 contributors worldwide.

In the future we want to create an online marketplace for social causes in china. So today, you could go on and support an entrepreneur in rural China, and next year you could support a semester of school for a student in Ningxia Province, and in the year after that you could help fund solar panels for a family with no electricity in Xinjiang. Along with this marketplace, we want to create an online and offline community people supporting China.

A.) Courtney: We hope to bring funding, community, and transparency to the nonprofit sector of China. Our goal is to build a community of individuals working to build a better China. Please visit our site and see our executive summary for more details.

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As entrepreneurs we learn not only from personal experiences but also the mistakes and strength of the world around us. If your considering turning your own idea into something more, look for every chance you can to surround yourself with fellow creative do-gooders along with innovators from other fields. For individuals who simply want to put out their project, I being one of them, casual networking can often appear like a waste of time. However, learning from the mistakes of others speeds up our own process of trial and error. I’ve also found that hearing success stories first hand can reignite the energy and enthusiasm that often grows faint on the stormy road of realizing our own endeavors. Gumball Capital encourages you to reach out and find stories like Courtney and Casey’s in order to initiate your own conversations. Doing this, will reward both you and the people you wish to serve.