In a story titled “USAID Grant Helps Create Marathi Books for Blind Kids,” Indian newspaper India-West highlights Benetech’s winning project in USAID’s “All Children Reading: A Grand Challenge for Development” literacy innovations competition.
Silicon Valley technology nonprofit Benetech today announced the appointments of Betsy Beaumon as president and Mark Roberts as chief operating officer. Founder Jim Fruchterman continues as Benetech’s chief executive officer, evangelizing Benetech and advancing the technology-for-good field. The goal of the senior appointments is to increase Benetech’s social impact at scale and its capacity to create new social enterprises that use technology to deliver social good.
At Benetech, we’re fortunate to have had long-time support from funders who have been willing to bet on us. One foundation that has been a committed supporter of our work is the Lavelle Fund for the Blind. Over and over again, it has allowed us to pilot and eventually scale technology solutions that empower disadvantaged communities. The Fund demonstrates the incredible social impact that private philanthropy can create through smart investing strategies and risk tolerance.
In the United States, all too many students with disabilities are still denied equal opportunity to engage in the same curriculum as their peers without disabilities because they do not have adequate access to educational materials that are necessary to learn and succeed in school. The good news is that major changes in technology are reforming education, writes CEO Jim Fruchterman in a United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) report, The State of the World’s Children 2015.
How can a social enterprise engage effectively in founder succession planning, and what are some of the benefits that may occur when a founder is able to share the ownership, control, and culture of the business with a successor, or even a wider group of social leaders? This was one theme of a plenary session at this year’s annual Social Capital Markets Conference (SOCAP14) in San Francisco. Benetech CEO, Jim Fruchterman, and VP of the Benetech Global Literacy Program, Betsy Beaumon, joined moderator Penelope Douglas, SOCAP Board Chair, for a dynamic conversation titled “Make Yourself Invaluable, Not Irreplaceable.”
