March 24, 2021 Webinar: Realizing the Promise of Social Franchising

You are invited to join the University of New Hampshire Rosenberg International Franchise Center and the International Franchise Association Social Sector Franchising Committee for a special webinar:

Realizing the Promise of Social Franchising
Wednesday, March 24, 2021,10:00-11:30 a.m. ET

Panelists include:

• Dr E. Hachemi Aliouche – Director, Rosenberg International Franchise Center, University of New Hampshire;
• Dr Fiona Wilson - Deputy Chief Sustainability Officer and Director, Sustainability Institute, University of New Hampshire;
• Greg Starbird - Founder & Principal, Starbird Consulting LLC
• Sabrina Habib - Co-founder, Kidogo

Franchising has a proven record of promoting and sustaining business expansion. Socially minded entrepreneurs are turning to this model in a quest to achieve growth and large-scale social impact. As panelists Aliouche, Starbird and Wilson write in their most recent article just published in the Stanford Social Innovations Review (February 2021), “If the success of commercial franchising could be harnessed for positive social impact, the benefits would be immense. They would include improved access to products and services for tens of millions of people; ownership opportunities at the base of the pyramid (BoP) for tens of thousands of franchisees; creation of jobs for hundreds of thousands of people employed by franchisees and franchisors; and spillover benefits, such as healthy pressure on local suppliers to improve the quality of their products and services to a level high enough to win contracts to supply franchise networks.” Social franchising is emerging as a promising powerful approach to multiplying the impacts of social enterprises. However, significant obstacles stand in the way of social franchising achieving its full potential.

Key questions addressed in this webinar include:

• Why is franchising such a promising model for large-scale social impact?
• What are some examples of promising social franchises and how are they doing?
• What are key challenges commonly faced by social franchises?
• How did these promising social franchises overcome these challenges?
• What lessons can we draw from the experiences of vastly different social franchises?

For more information about the event and to register, visit: https://www.unh.edu/rosenbergcenter/realizing-promise-social-franchising

Agenda:

• 10:00 am - 10:05 am:  Introduction – Marla Rosner
• 10:05 am – 11:00 am:  The Promise of Social Franchising
  Moderator: Peter Holt
  Panelists: Hachemi Aliouche, Greg Starbird, Fiona Wilson
• 11:00 am – 11:30 am:  The Kidogo Story – Sabrina Habib
• 11:30 am:  Closing Remarks – Peter Holt