Happy Wednesday Wicked people! 🐇 

Private sector cannot tackle certain wicked problems. So other forms of entrepreneurship are needed, such as building non-profits.

This is why Wicked is organising Run For Impact on December 2. Our goal is create a valuable, unique networking experience as well as to raise funding and awareness for high-impact charities incubated by Charity Entrepreneurship – which you will learn more about in today’s interview! ;)

Interested in Slush week side-events related to impact? Make sure to check last week’s post.

See ya!

Interview with Cameron King, Founder of Animal Advocacy Africa

• Who? Cameron King, Operations Lead at Animal Advocacy Africa (AAA).

• Background: Transitioned from eCommerce to non-profit entrepreneurship to solve a meaningful problem.

• Impact:

  • Expanded AAA's support to 17 organizations across Africa.

  • Assisted in raising approximately $85,000 for partner organizations.

  • Influenced the adoption of high-impact animal welfare strategies.

Wicked Community: Hey! Awesome to speak with you. Please share in a few sentences about your story of becoming an impact entrepreneur.

Cameron King: I started an e-commerce business in my third year of university while I was studying computing, mostly because I knew I didn’t want to become a coder and I wanted to keep my options open. I was heavily interested in making a (positive) difference in the world and began donating small amounts to impactful nonprofits. 

After a few years of the business, I wanted to get more involved in the impact space and came across Charity Entrepreneurship’s incubation program which I applied for and consequently started Animal Advocacy Africa after the end of the program and the rest is history.

Since then I have started another project Impactful Animal Advocacy which is looking to unite animal advocates across the globe in an online community to uplift, network and learn from one another (especially in LMIC’s where no local community is present). I’ve since stepped back and am an advisor.

Wicked: What is the purpose and mission around Animal Advocacy Africa?

Cameron: The ultimate goal is to prevent factory farming in Africa.

The current subgoal is to simultaneously empower and upskill the African animal movement and to enhance the flow of funding to African Animal Advocacy organisations.

We’re doing this by:

• Running a training program for promising African animal advocates

• Regranting to impactful African animal advocacy organisations and advocates.

Wicked: How has the process of building AAA been and what stage is the project at?

It’s certainly been a journey; actually, we started AAA as volunteers for 4-5 months until we obtained our first funding (Shoutout EA animal Welfare fund). 

We started researching the African Animal Advocacy Landscape, then we ran our first pilot program. Since then we have iterated the program and our organisations, done some more research, ran a couple more programs, regranted some money, helped get some African advocates to an international conference and landed here on our current program.

Wicked: You were an incubatee at Charity Entrepreneurship in 2020. So, how was that journey getting into their program and as a participant?

Cameron: I applied on somewhat of a whim when I came across the program on “Vegan Jobs Board” At the time I was looking to get more involved in the impact space and even when I saw the name I could tell it was an incredible fit - “Charity Entrepreneurship” combining my two passions of Charity and Entrepreneurship.

I found the application process enjoyable - the test tasks were dynamic and interesting, and I learned a lot from the process. It was about learning and applying algorithms and decision-making methodologies. In regards to the interviews I had a strong sense they had gone extremely well, I felt a lot of resonance in what we talked about in regards to impact and making a difference in the world. 

Honestly looking back as a participant I think I was a little naive and unprepared, I think I was a bit rough around the edges but had high potential. For example, I did not know about wild animal suffering which is pretty common knowledge in the animal space. I was not used to working with other people - I was mostly used to running my own business solo and definitely had some communication skills to work on - thankfully I think I have improved a lot since! 

If I were to go through the program again I’d focus on connecting more closely to peers on the program, talking more with individuals, and scheduling extra meetings with the people I liked or thought I’d work with more. Meeting more adjacent individuals and relevant stakeholders in the cause area of Animal Welfare. One thing I think I did right was I read the whole of the CE website and their reading list before starting!

Wicked: You have also been an entrepreneur in the e-commerce space. What are the similarities with building a venture for-profit and non-profit? What are the differences?

Cameron: Similarities

• You need to have excellent decision-making skills - not just in the large decisions, many small decisions stack up over time and lead to vastly different outcomes.

• You need to have a lot of grit and determination to make it work, overcoming setbacks, grinding it out even when it’s extremely difficult.

• “Your network is your net worth” it’s a cringey phrase but it’s mostly true, something I undervalued at the beginning. Various stakeholders will make or break your org - your team, funders, advisors, mentors, experts etc. So so valuable.

Differences

• You need a tight feedback loop and Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) with a non-profit, there is not a built in metric like for-profit in terms of growth or profit itself. You need to be really on top of your impact metrics and measurements in a non-profit or you’ll fool yourself that you’re having an impact when you’re not. You need better organising and self-reflection.

• Alignment doesn’t matter in a for-profit. Personally, I am trying to have a (positive) impact but for a for-profit, it’s not strictly necessary, although I strongly recommend you are at least not doing harm to the world with your organisation. Therefore you can come across individuals who are more self-motivated and have to be a bit more careful with trust - as opposed to a non-profit there is more altruism just through filtering.

Wicked: What could for-profit and non-profit entrepreneurs learn from each other? 

Cameron: Non-profit entrepreneurs can learn about scale and growth and the impact that for-profits can have, systems changes and incentives, they can learn about flywheel effects and exponential impact.

For-profit entrepreneurs can learn about more intricate M&E, the landscape of non profit funders, having higher altruism, and just how much impact they can actually have if they apply their skills to nonprofits!

Wicked: Many for-profit entrepreneurs are also impact-focused. So, do you see that for-profit and non-profit impact entrepreneurs could be part of the same community?

Cameron: Yes, absolutely. I am more sold on the impact of for-profits recently. I’m bullish on alt protein for the animal space and if I wasn’t doing this I’d probably be working there. I also think there is tremendous space in for-profits around topics like community, friendship and connection. (Why has no one started more projects here?!)

I would love to see more impact communities popup based on shared intrinsic values of impact and making the world a better place.

Wicked: Would you recommend others to build non-profit ventures? How would you recommend them to get started?

Cameron: Yes, I would - it’s without a doubt one of the most fulfilling things you can do. I’d recommend that you start projects of your own and get experience that way. I’m pretty sure AMF started as a swimming fundraiser so you can definitely do it too! Secondary to that, hit up some conferences and build a network!

Wicked: Thank you so much for your time Cameron! And great job with your high-impact work in the animal welfare space. We look forward to following your progress in preventing factory farming in Africa. Best of luck!

Key takeaways for impact entrepreneurs 🔑 

1. Adapt your skillset: Cameron’s journey underscores the importance of a diverse skill set for impact founders and founding teams. The shift from e-commerce to animal welfare highlights the value of being able to adapt skills to address unique challenges and build successfully.

2. Leverage Networks and Community: Building and leveraging communities is central to success as a founder, especially within impact space where you may be lacking other resources such as funding. Cameron emphasises the significance of networks, mentors, and partnerships in his journey. Of course your main focus should still be on building a product or service which someone is ready to pay for.

3.  Learn from your entrepreneur peers: The interview outlines the similarities and differences in for-profit and non-profit entrepreneurship from Cameron’s POV. Entrepreneurs are encouraged to learn from both sectors, emphasising the potential for mutually beneficial relationships. Impact entrepreneurs, regardless of sector, are connected by motivation to make an impact.

4. Make your impact measurable: Cameron emphasises the need for clear metrics to assess progress and effectively address the problem you are trying to solve. He highlights that a tight feedback loop and robust Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) are crucial for impact entrepreneurs to ensure they are making impact rather than assuming. 

What do you think about this newsletter issue and non profit entrepreneurship? We would love to hear from you so shoot your response to us at [email protected] 🐇 .

Keep reading! But also make sure to subscribe for future issues ;)

What’s cooking?! 🧑‍🍳

Run For Impact

Wicked Community is organising Run for Impact on December 2 – a 10k Charity Run as a unique networking event for founders, future founders and ecosystem professionals with the goal of raising €10.000 for high-impact charities.

• When: December 2, 2023 from 11:00am-2:00pm

• Where: Lapinlahden Lähde (beautiful see side views)

• Who can participate: Everyone is welcome! Walking or just drinking Glög also allowed

• Minimum donation to participate: €50 per runner… students and low-income at €25 per runner.

• Where is my money going?
  Charity Entrepreneurship: Incubated Charitied Fund
  Why?
   💥 Entrepreneurship is an effective way to solve global challenges but many issues, like animal welfare, alcoholism and more cannot be tackled by the private sector. Charity Entrepreneurship incubates dozens of high-impact charities for this purpose!

How many days out of the year can you make a positive impact with every Step you take? This December 2nd you can, by joining us to Run for Impact! 🏃💥

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