Educare Consulting Group Brings Business and Society Together to Solve Large Scale Social Problems

Oct. 26, 2012 - PRLog -- “Business and society have been pitted against each other for too long” said Educare Consulting Group Executive Director, Andrea Molarius. “We are so excited our funding models have been able to harness the collective power of industry and the expertise of the nonprofit community to create social improvements”. Working with private business and the providers of public services Educare has created a model of growth and investment that allows companies to build their competitive edge, while promoting solutions to problems such as educational inequality, recidivism, and generational poverty.

Educare’s Shared Value Fund Development Process begins by helping companies identify societal problems in their surrounding communities that result in increased company costs. For example, working with Edison Early Learning, Educare discovered that shortfalls in education funding limited the ability of schools to purchase Edison online learning solutions, which constrained company profits while at the same time deprived students of high quality technological tools demonstrated to improve career and college readiness. To address these issues Educare brought together Edison, schools, government representatives and advocates to establish the “Our Kids, Our Community Workgroup”. This group has since developed a collective educational reform mission and vision and created educational indicators that are accelerated through the use of Edison technology in learning. The group has also captured more than $9M in grant funds to support large scale improvements in family poverty, student achievement, and juvenile delinquency. Edison Early Learning now incorporates a more fluid agenda and product development approach that is guided by local stakeholders which has fueled company profits and created shared value in the form of additional tax revenue to communities, increased academic achievement for students, and reduced product development costs for Edison.

Most grant funders are faced with the task of choosing a few grantees from many applicants. The Shared Value Fund Development Process results in a more successful approach to the capture of grant funds because businesses, nonprofits, and local governments work together towards solutions driven efforts. This type of collaboration offers a greater contribution towards solving social problems than can be obtained from agencies working in isolation.


Additional details and staff biographies can be viewed at http://www.educareconsulting.org