impact

How is impact measured?
What information does the consignment organization lack?
What is the impact that Community Enterprise Solutions has had to date?
Where are potential greater opportunities for impact in the future?
What are the negative impacts of the MicroConsignment Model?

–

How is impact measured?
Due to the nature of the entrepreneur training, identification, and support and financing mechanism within the model, we are able to track the following in real time:

• Number and profile of entrepreneurs trained
• Revenues, expenses, and profits of entrepreneurs
• Inputed monthly, daily, weekly, and hourly profits of entrepreneurs
• Revenues, expenses, and profits of implementing organization
• Access opportunities created by entrepreneurs
  • Number of villages visited
  • Basis demographic of villages visited
  • Number of attendees at a village campaign
  • Name and location of village
• Number of product sales per woman per village and per month
• Types of products sales per woman per village per month
• Assumed economic impact for villagers purchasing products
• Assumed health benefits for villagers purchasing products
• Return on investment/donations

Note: In reference to village demographics, what is elegant about the model is that it works best in places lacking access to the types of products and services the entrepreneurs offer because there is neither current access nor a sense of urgency. As a result, there are no stoves, glasses, seeds, or solar lamps being offered in these places. The model is a first mover that opens new markets.

Villagers will only part with their scarce economic resources if they see a true benefit. The model provides what people need and want and they vote for it with their limited resources. In many respects, once the products have been introduced and marketed, there is little actual “selling” that needs to take place.

The result is a win-win situation: Entrepreneurs earn a net profit in aggregate and have new jobs while the consignment organization earns a net profit to pay for staffing, overhead, and marketing, and to be reinvested in future activity.

What information does the consignment organization lack?
How entrepreneurs use their money: CE Solutions conducts occasional surveys, but has not tracked exactly how the women entrepreneurs spend their money. Despite this, the women are the target group that is proven to have the greatest impact from a development perspective when they do have money. We know that young women and mothers spend their money primarily on food, nutrition, education, and healthcare for their families.
How villagers spend the money they save: We conduct surveys to understand the economic impact of the products. CE Solutions only sells products that have positive economic, health, and, if possible, environmental impacts. How much money a stove or water purifier saves on average is calculated but CES does not survey every family, though we do periodic samplings to confirm our assumptions. Although we know these families now have equity in their pockets, we have yet to comprehensively track how exactly they spend that equity. The assumption is that it helps with family and business expenses.
The health impact of the products for villagers: There is no question that the glasses, stoves, seeds, water purifiers and other products which we provide have an embedded health benefit, but we do not research the exact health benefits our products have on the villagers because to do so is quite difficult and capital intensive.

What is the impact that Community Enterprise Solutions has had to date?

Where are potential greater opportunities for impact in the future?

What are the negative impacts of the MicroConsignment Model?