Venture Description: Solutions Magazine is a student-driven and student- oriented non-profit publishing group. Solutions Magazine is a free online and print publication on social entrepreneurship designed for students and members of the general public interested in social entrepreneurship. Our organization disseminates news, events, and job opportunities and organizes podcasts in dorms to spread the philosophy and ideas of social entrepreneurship.

Venture Origin: As a freshman, I took a course on social entrepreneurship. Being really excited about the idea, I had conversations with fellow students, trying to explain to them what social entrepreneurship was all about. Realizing that I couldn't talk to everyone, I started a publication on social entrepreneurship to reach the entire Stanford campus

Innovation: Our venture increases student awareness and involvement in internships, courses, and other opportunities related to social entrepreneurship. We make it easier for social enterprises to recruit students for their initiatives, instructors to recruit students for their classes, students to access easily accessible information, and help build the field of social entrepreneurship.

Impact: We've had over 10,000 unique visitors to our site since we started measuring our website statistics in August of 2005. Currently, we have posted over 200 entries, over 500 individuals have signed up on our direct mailing list (22 via RSS), and over 1000 people have watched the videos we have uploaded on YouTube. In addition, we've connected numerous students to part-time and full-time opportunities in social entrepreneurship.

Engagement with the community: We've partnered with student groups, professional organizations, and campus centers to make their content available online. In addition, this year we will be launching with other organizations a podcasting initiative in the dorms to help publicize social entrepreneurs and their work to more students on campus.

Impact and engagement progress since launch: After going through a due diligence process in 2003 and receiving seed funding from Youth Venture and others in 2004, our group began the process of building a sustainable student group. In 2004, we launched the beta of our website and went public in 2005. In 2006, we published our first print issue, printing 4,000 issues and directly reaching every one of 1,600 incoming freshmen.

Impact and engagement strategy: Part of our focus has been to ensure that our organization is sustainable. To that end, we have been using a blog and a wiki to maintain our institutional memory. Furthermore, we are constantly thinking about new and innovative ways of reaching our audiences. We first worked on a print issue to reach students on campus, moved online to reach a wider audience, and then started podcasts.

Awards: BASES (Business Association of Stanford Engineering Students) 2nd Place ($2000) - Social Entrepreneurs Challenge (Social Venture B-Plan Competition)

Money raised: Our funding also comes from the $2,000 award we received from the BASES Social Entrepreneurs Challenge and the $4,000 annually we receive from the Publications Board at Stanford University.

Creative ways of raising resources: We participated in a social entrepreneurship comeptition that not only provided us a grant, but also helped our team define our vision and strategy. We also have contacted professional writers who have written articles for us and use the many resources we have as students of Stanford University.

Expansion plan for next 6 months: Our plan is to develop our podcasting initiative at Stanford and possibly work with Innovatorz.org and eonfire to bring our podcasting initiative to other universities.

Plans for sustaining the project: We have ensured that our venture is sustainable by designing our venture to be easily maintained by one or two people while at the same time be easily expandable. Furthermore, our funding source is stable since it comes from the university and our expenses are low.

Vision for three years from now: I would like to see Solutions Magazine be a key player in the field of social entrepreneurship by increasing student awareness of social entrepreneurship. I believe that increasing student awareness of social entrepreneurship will lead to exponential social return. The vision for Solutions Magazine is to be a well-known and valuable resource for students interested in social entrepreneurship.

Project impact: When I was a freshman, the field of social entrepreneurship was an emerging field with few resources that provided easily accessible information as to what social entrepreneurship was and how one could become involved in social entrepreneurship. Out of this frustration came an opportunitiy to build Solutions Magazine, which has become a leader in providing easily accessible content in social entrepreneurship. Students at Stanford and elsewhere now have the ability to visit our site, learn what social entrepreneurship is, and get involved through the many different social entrepreneurship opportunities we publicize. Furthermore, not only do we make it easier for students to find information, but we also make it easier for social enterprises to recruit students and hire valuable talent.

Youth Venture movement - what it means and how you can contribute: It means a great deal to be part of a growing movement of young social entrepreneurs that are committed to social change. Personally, I find it comforting to know that others are as deeply committed to making a difference in the world. We, as Solutions Magazine, hope that we can contribute to promoting the Youth Venture movement by inspiring more young individuals to become involved in the youth social entrepreneur movement and making it easier for people to learn about what it means to be a social entrepreneur.