Beyond the lemonade stand: Sustaining a new socialventure
1. What is a calling and how do you find it?
2. How can you complement an intuitive response to social needswith a methodological
approach to social entrepreneurship?
3. How are new social ventures sustained?
In 2016, a young South African left her secure officejob to pursue her passion for social entrepreneurship in the youthdevelopment field. She had been volunteering with street children,but she wanted to do more by drawing on her entrepreneurialexperience from high school and university. She followed herpassion, and experienced a number of challenges, but also earlysuccesses over her first four years of social entrepreneurship,including the formation of her social business, Beyond the LemonadeStand. Business was steady but she struggled with getting thecommitment needed in poor township schools to make the program asuccess. She began to question the core purpose of her organizationand wondered if she would be better off pursuing opportunitiesoffered by middle-class and private schools that wanted herservices.
Anthony Wilson-Prangley is affiliated with Universityof Pretoria.
Learning Objective
The case is aimed at early-phase social entrepreneursand those interested in the field. It is intended to be used in theopening few sessions of a course on social entrepreneurship at theundergraduate or graduate level. After completion of the case,students will have explored the following questions: What is acalling and how do you find it? How can you complement an intuitiveresponse to social needs with a methodical approach to socialentrepreneurship? How are new social ventures sustained?
