5. IMPCT Key Success Factors
5.3. Network’s Success Factors
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the community wants another teacher to have the job, and then the president of the community's daughter is a local gangster and she got her to send death threat to our teacher.” – Scobbie
Because of the incident, IMPCT closed the playcare and invented a new model: the factory-based model.
5.3. Network’s Success Factors
Why is it a Success Factor?“You cannot do anything without your network. It's impossible to get anything done without knowing who could help you for it.” – Scobbie
The network has played a key role in IMPCT’s success so far. Indeed, IMPCT benefited a lot in terms of network, expertise, donations, support, public relations and social business opportunities.
Network
One of the main benefits from a great network is gaining access to the network’s network. As IMPCT started to reach out to more people, its network increased exponentially.
“Just by talking with people, they introduce us to other people, who introduce us to other people.” – Prudot
Expertise
After winning the local round of competition of the Hult Prize at NCCU, IMPCT gained access to the Taipei Angels’ expertise, the Taipei Angel’s chairman being present during the local
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round.
“They had specialists from education, marketing, technology, all different areas. They told us that whatever we needed, they could bring an expert on that topic for us, they did a lot of
mentoring for us.” – Prudot
Among others, IMPCT also benefited from the expertise of the CEO of Eureeca, a global equity crowdfunding platform, as well as a former managing director of the World Bank, the Taipei Ministry of Education, education social workers, a certified public accountant from KPMG and a certified architect, who were all connected to IMPCT thanks to the network.
Donations
During the Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign, IMPCT estimates that 90% of the donations were obtained thanks to the team’s network. The co-founders’ families and friends were the first ones to donate but it was far from being enough to reach the goal. Some of NCCU IMBA program professors leaned heavily on their network to make donations happen. Through Chen’s father’s network, a group of NCCU E-MBA alumni donated over US$1,000 in only one night.
A couple of large Salvadorian NGOs were reached through Escobar’s network and made the largest donations of the Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign (US$15,000).
Support
Social entrepreneurs know better than others that money is not enough and that social aspects are crucial in projects. IMPCT’s co-founders’ NCCU IMBA classmates massively volunteered to help raising awareness and selling t-shirts on NCCU campus. The NCCU IMBA office also
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showed support by providing IMPCT with facilities to work in and facilitating the team’s trip to the Hult Prize final in New York.
Public relations
Ann Li, an influential blogger and a friend of Escobar’s, helped IMPCT with the launch of a
“#IMPCT” contest on social media, starting IMPCT’s public relations campaign. One of NCCU IMBA professors also reached out to the CEO of the United Daily, an influential Taiwanese newspaper, to convince him to talk about IMPCT in the newspaper. The day after, IMPCT was made the front-page of the United Daily. From there, media invitations flew-in. In El Salvador, Escobar’s brother and other IMPCT supporters were invited for media appearances to talk on IMPCT’s behalf.
Business opportunities
After having started its operations, IMPCT decided to help farmers producing coffee and jam.
The Taiwanese desert chef who makes the jam has also been contacted through IMPCT’s network.
Important Stakeholders
Hult Prize
Thanks to the Hult Prize competition and the Hult Prize’s accelerator program, IMPCT benefited tremendously in terms of learning, networking, funding and credibility.
Taipei Angels
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Thanks to the Taipei Angels, IMPCT had access to experts operating in different areas. The Taipei Angels also helped in developing IMPCT’s public relations and in networking.
NCCU IMBA
The courses provided within NCCU IMBA helped the IMPCT team digesting knowledge, especially one of the courses inspired the team for its social business model. In addition, some of IMBA professors helped IMPCT for networking and public relations. Thanks to NCCU IMBA’s partnership with the Hult Prize, IMPCT was able to participate in the local round of competition. The NCCU IMBA program also financed IMPCT for its trip to Boston and supported the team in New York. The NCCU IMBA also provides a large international network which IMPCT could use for its development.
Having a Praiseworthy Purpose
As other social enterprises, IMPCT’s purpose is considered as praiseworthy. IMPCT benefited from its good image all along its journey. For instance, the Taipei Angels reached out to IMPCT after the team won the Hult Prize local round of competition because they thought that they had a good purpose.
“At the beginning, after they won the school competition, we thought the idea was great, and was very helpful not just for urban slums, but also for the world.” – Yang
IMPCT received the help of more people than if its purpose was not as praiseworthy.
“[…] it's amazing how people help you when you're doing good. Because you don't have any competition, you're not selling a product, you're doing good. So obstacles were not there. We
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would just ask and people would give, and if they wouldn't give, they would hook us up with someone else. People are willing to help, but sometimes they don't know how to help us, or how
to help people.” – Escobar
When the whole IMPCT team went to one of Salvadorian urban slum to build its pilot playcare, some local gangster even made sure to protect the team, because they knew that IMPCT was there to do good.
In addition, people that IMPCT did not know before reached out to help.
“The cool strength about social enterprises is that when you are doing good, and people look at you and see the passion, the hard work, and see that you have a good idea, then people reach out
to you. That happened to us all throughout this journey.” – Prudot
Having heard of IMPCT on the radio, IMPCT’s office landlord even offered a discount on the office rent.
Social entrepreneurship is growing more and more popular. Therefore, social entrepreneurs need to consider that their network is broader than what one might think.
Honesty, Integrity and Sense of Responsibilities
Honesty and integrity are two attitudes from IMPCT team members that were useful in developing, committing and maintaining their network.
For instance, during the Indiegogo campaign, NCCU professors started to notice IMPCT putting-in hard work and showing dedication to their project. In the end, some of the professors
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helped the team with fundraising, public relations, support and expertise.
“We were at NCCU for ten hours a day this whole time. So the professors would walk by every day and notice us. So they see that you're serious and they're happy to help.” – Scobbie
IMPCT managed to stay true to themselves ever since the adventure began, and they were appreciated for it.
“I like how they are themselves, they are not acting, this is the reason why we really like them.” – Yang
Proactivity
Network development
IMPCT’s network has grown tremendously between the beginning of the adventure and today.
The first large network that opened to IMPCT was the Taipei Angels. When the Taipei Angels offered their help to IMPCT, the team immediately accepted and showed-up to the Taipei Angels’ office shortly after the invitation. IMPCT showed to the angels’ investment group that the team was interested with the collaboration. IMPCT showed-up several times to the Taipei Angel’s office and had many discussions with their team of experts on social media. IMPCT’s proactivity to schedule meetings and chat with the Taipei Angels helped maintaining good relationships between the two groups. As a matter of fact, the Taipei Angels are still providing some guidance to IMPCT.
During the crowdfunding campaign, Chen organized an event with NCCU’s E-MBA alumni and raised over a thousand dollars during this one event. Chen also reached out to her former
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university, where IMPCT was allowed to pitch and raise awareness. Escobar reaching out to his blogger friend and many efforts to get large donations from NGOs also needed proactivity.
Actually, the whole team’s effort to reach out during to as many people as possible during the crowdfunding campaign testify of the whole’s team proactivity.
Updates
The team kept its network of donors involved by providing regular updates on the Indiegogo page. IMPCT has been providing updates on its social media profiles as well. Providing updates to their network is a way for social entrepreneurs to maintain relationships with their network, and keeping their network involved.
Updates are also necessary for the Hult Prize, which donated money to IMPCT. Regular updates help reassuring the Hult Prize that the money is well spent, which helps maintaining good relationships.
Event organization
After having won the Hult Prize, IMPCT remembered to thank all the people who helped the team throughout the journey by organizing a “Thank You Party”. It was a way for IMPCT to provide the latest updates of the ongoing projects and to show its appreciation to all the people who helped the team. Showing appreciation helps maintaining good relationships.
Friendliness
During the Hult Prize regional round of competition and Accelerator, IMPCT tried hard to be friendly with all the other teams. Their attitude brought them support from other teams as well
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as a potential useful network.
“Since Dubai, [Prudot] and myself, we promised ourselves that we would make as many friends as possible and if we didn't make friends, at least we would be nice, we would smile to other teams, we would be humble to other teams. That helped a lot, in so many ways because every
time that we won, people would clap, people would be happy for us.” – Escobar
In addition, IMPCT remembered that its competitors were also social entrepreneurs tackling the same social issue.
“You could imagine that your competitors would be bad guys, and you wouldn't get along with them, but it was completely another story. They were great people, just like us with the same
fears, same challenges, same education.” – Escobar
One-to-One Communication
One-to-one communication is a method consisting in reaching out to somebody in a personalized way. One-to-one communication is in opposition with mass communication.
One-to-one communication was how the IMPCT adventure started. When Prudot reached out to Chen, Escobar and Scobbie, he did it in a personal fashion by talking to them through social media.
One-to-one communication was IMPCT’s preferred communication style whenever the team needed anything from its network. IMPCT mostly used one-to-one communication during the crowdfunding campaign. Each time the team members would reach to their personal network to ask for donations, through social media or phone, IMPCT’s message would be customized.
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IMPCT also used one-to-one communication as a way of convincing people. For instance, after each speaking event, the team stayed around to talk to people to convince them to buy the IMPCT idea and donate. According to IMPCT, one-to-one communication was their success factor for the crowdfunding campaign.