Episode 83: Jocelyn Wyatt
Join Lori and her guest, Jocelyn Wyatt, as they delve into a discussion about social enterprise. Jocelyn Wyatt, the CEO of Alight, is at the forefront of delivering crucial services and programs to internally displaced people and refugees globally. Jocelyn shares the potential positive outcomes when businesses prioritize goals beyond financial gain, ultimately making a meaningful difference in the lives of many!
Here are the things to expect in this episode:
What is social enterprise?
The primary mission or purpose of Alight.
How do social enterprises contribute to positive social impact?
Ways to support entrepreneurs in various countries who are in need of assistance.
And much more!
Alight’s Website: https://wearealight.org/
Alight’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/we.are.alight/
Alight’s Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WeAreAlight/
Jocelyn’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jocelynwyatt/
Jocelyn’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jocelynwyatt/
Connect with Lori Kranczer!
Website: https://www.linkphilanthropic.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lorikranczer/
Episode Transcript
00:01
You’re listening to the positive impact philanthropy podcast where we share the journeys of everyday philanthropists as they incorporate philanthropy into their lives. Philanthropy is a personal journey and through the stories we will share here, we hope that it sparks something in you and how you can make your own philanthropic impact in the world. I'm your host, Lori Kranczer attorney, philanthropic advisor and legacy given strategist. Today we're going to explore what it looks like to be an everyday philanthropist and make a positive impact in the world. Before we get started, make sure to subscribe to the podcast so you never miss a new episode posted on Wednesdays. So I'm so excited today to have Jocelyn Wyatt. She is the CEO of Alight. Welcome, Jocelyn.
00:44
Thanks so much for having me. It's great to be here.
00:46
So Jocelyn, can you tell us more about you and tell us a bit about your story?
00:52
Great. So I grew up the child of two educators. My parents both had lived and travelled around the world pretty extensively. And I went to college and studied anthropology because I was really interested in different cultures and understanding the world and after I graduated from college, I moved to Washington DC, and got a job working in international development. My first job was working for a contractor for the USA Agency for International Development. And I did have the opportunity to travel around the world and just sort of experience different global development projects that the US government was supporting, through that time, really recognized that there was a real disconnect between what those of us were doing in Washington, you know, straight out of undergrad without much context of the places where we were working and what the people on the grounds that were meant to sort of benefit from these programs, what their experience actually was. And so I felt like that disconnect, I really needed to kind of bridge that and then figure out how to get closer to the people that we are meant to be serving and to make sure that the programs and services and products that we were delivering were more closely aligned with those needs. So I went to business school to really see how the private sector and sort of enterprise based models adjusted and got really interested in social enterprise as an approach ended up spending about a year India working for a social enterprise called Vision Springs that was delivering affordable eyeglasses, selling affordable eyeglasses to customers in rural India. I worked as an acumen fellow, working with a couple of health social enterprises in Kenya for about a year. And then I wound up joining IDEO the innovation and design firm. And so IDEO at the time, was really interested in starting to pioneer a human centered design approach with nonprofits and foundations and social enterprises. And I came on board to really start the social impact domain there. A few years in, recognize that we needed a different kind of business model to be able to work with nonprofits and foundations and social enterprises and so ended up CO founding ideo.org which was a sister nonprofit to the innovation design from IDEO. And so I ran ideo.org for about 10 years. And along the way, was introduced this great organization that was initially called American Refugee Committee and later rebranded to Alight and as I was sort of wrapping up my 10 years at ideo.org had the opportunity to join Alight as the yell that two years ago and so that is where I have been for the last couple of years.
03:44
Wow. Okay, so definitely I see your philanthropic journey. We're gonna dig into this a little bit, but before we get into that, we haven't really had too many people on the show talking about social enterprises. And I wonder if you can share with our audience that, what that means, what that looks like and share some examples that, you know, they can understand what that looks like.
04:04
Absolutely. So social enterprise is basically the idea that we can use business models to advance social good or you know, the state's poverty alleviation. So there's sort of two sides. What makes social enterprises great? One is that they are enterprises that provide jobs and income generating opportunities or wealth building opportunities for the entrepreneurs themselves because they're selling products or services that are valuable to those customers. And the second piece of it is that the people that are receiving those products or services are really thought of as customers as opposed to beneficiaries. And so therefore, the products and services need to be really designed in a way that the people want them because they have to buy them in order to make it work. So I mean, one great example is a social enterprise called the light which sells affordable solar lanterns and phone chargers and solar home system. And so the light for instance, started in India and Kenya now has spread all over the world. But they've really been able to figure out what their customers need and some customers need very small $5 lights. Some customers need full solar home systems. And so by understanding those customers, they're able to, they've been able to really invest in designing a whole suite of different home solar products for those customers. And then they've been able to really create income generating opportunities for all these entrepreneurs who are able to go around house to house or to their car to sell but the light home lighting products.
05:43
Yeah, and it's such a great model because I think it's especially appealing for people that want to go in the for profit business, but still a value based business and how to connect the two I mean, if it does connect, right, so if there are those individuals that are listening, what would you say to them? If they have that sort of inclination to do something like that?
06:03
Yeah, I think social enterprises are a great way to do that. I think more and more social enterprises are being started and supported for entrepreneurs who are from the local communities or the context where they're working. So when I started 15 years ago, it was much more common for like, even the founders of the lights were Stanford graduates, right, who decided to go and start this business in India in Kenya. And I think that still continues to some extent, though. I think there's much more recognition now that we should be really supporting or amplifying the efforts or investing in Indian or Kenyan entrepreneurs who are starting these types of social enterprises. So I think there's sort of an opportunity to say like, how are people that are maybe US based, you know, how can I design social enterprises that serve my own community here or how I partner with local entrepreneurs in other countries in order to make sure that we really are understanding the local context and the customers in that location?
07:07
What's the access to that look like? So if someone wanted to support those entrepreneurs in different countries, how does one find them to give them support?
07:16
Yeah, I mean, I often look to organizations like Echoing Green or the Segal family foundation or School Foundation, who have done such a great job of selecting entrepreneurs, social entrepreneurs, and supporting them. And so I think I would generally sort of look to the list of awardees of let some of these foundations that just have amazing scouting teams and amazing due diligence teams, and sort of see who it is that they're selecting, to provide support to, and then reach out to those organizations and just sort of see what their needs are. So for me, for instance, when I was between my first and second years of business school, I really wanted to spend time working with a social enterprise. I wanted to do that internationally. And so at the time, Fast Company had a list of social innovation organizations or something like that. And so I went through the list of, you know, the 25 organizations and social enterprises that Fast Company had selected and just reached out to all of them and said, “Hey, I'm between my first and second years of business, intern. Do you have any opportunities and envision things” and “yeah, actually, we do and if you want to come and work here with us, you know, there's an opportunity to do an extended internship” and so, I ended up going to Hyderabad and working alongside a fully Indian team on really just sort of increasing the access and the sales of affordable eyeglasses to rural communities in India.
08:52
Incredible Alright, so it's your basically, your whole philanthropic journey or your experience is a lot of people's ideals. Do this. Yeah, and but not everyone can has the capacity to be able to do what, what you have done, which really incredible. On your journey, are there resources or people that have been either mentors or along that journey with you to support you?
09:19
Absolutely. And certainly my first job was at Monix with the USA ID contractor. And I had great mentorship there people that really just taught me how to be a professional and how to work in the global development space. Monica had amazing professional development opportunities for young professionals was a certainly was at that time. After I finished grad school, I was selected for the acumen fellowship. And Jacqueline Novogratz, who is the founder and CEO of Acumen has become a really long time and important mentor to me. And she connected me with so many people, including this the former CEO of IDEO, which led to my role there and introduced me to many, many members of the academic community who ultimately became big supporters of mine at ideo.org. And now in Alight as well. And so I learned a lot from Jacqueline about leadership and about social enterprise and about how to build an organization. And then certainly at IDEO, I had many great mentors. I came to IDEO, not sort of identifying as a creative or a designer. But I really learned from incredible creative leaders that I knew how to lead in a much more creative way and how to work with creatives and how to bring creativity and design to really intractable global challenges. And so I really credit them a lot with what I learned and who I became as a leader.
10:54
And so, tell us about your work and what you're doing right now at Alight.
11:00
Yeah, so Alight is a global humanitarian INGO, which basically means that the majority of our work is really delivering services and programs to internally displaced people and refugees around the world. So each year we serve about 4 million displaced people and about 20 countries. That's 2400 humanitarians who work with us at Alight. And so that means we're doing everything from providing health services to water and sanitation. We deliver livelihood programs and help train people for employment opportunities and entrepreneurship opportunities. We deliver education programs, we do a lot of work with women and girls on everything from gender based violence to psychosocial support. And so a few of the themes that we're really focused on right now are really around serving displaced women and girls, and livelihoods and income generation opportunities. And on climate displacement and really supporting people on those journeys of displacement when they leave their home because of climate emergencies. We also started in the last couple of years working in the US on refugee resettlement and community sponsorship now that really allow everyday Americans to welcome and support new arrivals from around the world people that have qualified for refugee status and have been waiting to come to the US.
12:39
So interestingly, I was abandoned the US so how if I'm those that are listening, are interested in getting involved. What are the opportunities for them?
12:49
Yeah, so we definitely encourage you to check out our website and join our mailing list. It is we are Alight dot O R G, we are a l i g h t . O R G or follow us on social media. You can follow me on LinkedIn Jocelyn Wyatt. And so I think you know from our perspective, there are definitely times where we have volunteering opportunities. Minneapolis is a city where one of life's global hubs is and we often have volunteering opportunities that we definitely have opportunities to get involved with sponsorship of new arrivals of refugees coming to the US and so if that's of interest, definitely check that out on our website. We are currently recruiting and supporting sponsor groups all over the US. And then of course, we are always supporting people that want to give philanthropic, legal financial aid to the organization in order to support work. And so we are currently raising an emergency fund to allow us to invest in future emergencies that will happen as they do all over the world where light will respond. And so that's another place to support the organization as well.
14:06
Thank you. So sort of jumped over my favorite question, which is, you know, I can see a lot of patterns of what your journeys look like and I'm curious what you consider or would like your legacy to be.
14:26
Oh my, what I would like my legacy to be is really being made this connection between harnessing great, creative talents and helping to apply that to really intractable systems level challenges, especially related to global inequity. And so I think sort of combining the work that I did at ideo.org and the work that I'm doing now at Alight really thinking about how do we get to creative solutions through co creation with community is through bringing designers and entrepreneurs and other creatives into the mix to really get the answers or possibilities that none of us individually would mop up with on our own.
15:15
Fantastic. Well, thank you so much. I have to say I just your journeys amazing. We'll put in the shownotes all the different resources that you've mentioned, especially for those social enterprises and so people can take a look at that. Everyone can find where Jocelyn is working right now. At Alight but are there any other resources or any other places where people can find a Jocelyn?
15:42
Yeah, certainly you can find me on LinkedIn and Instagram. And yeah, and otherwise. Certainly I put out a lot through the Alight social media channels and newsletter as well.
15:56
Great. Well, everyone could check those out and certainly learn more about social enterprises for those that are interested and and pay attention to Jocelyn’s journey because it's something that I think everyone should really take a page from that, especially those that we speak to often they want to know how to do more international and they think this is a great example. So thank you, Jocelyn, for joining us today.
16:21
Thank you so much, Lori, it's good talking with you.
16:26
Thank you for joining us. Hope we provided insights and inspiration that you can use for your own philanthropic journey. You can tune in every week on Wednesdays when new episodes are dropped. We'd love to hear your feedback. So leave a comment and a rating about what you like and what you'd like to hear more about. And if you liked the episode today, make sure to share it to raise awareness about the story to inspire other women to take action. I'm Lori Kranczer and until next time, you can make a positive impact through philanthropy every day. Thanks for listening