Social Entrepreneur: Conscious Companies | Benefit Corporations | Impact Investing

When it comes to social good, we often think we have to do something world-changing. In his book All the Trouble in the World, P. J. O'Rourke said “Everybody wants to save the earth; nobody wants to help Mom do the dishes.” If you think about it, that’s human nature. We love the grand gesture, the transformational speech or the disruptive technology. In the meantime, we pass homeless people on the street and we wonder what to do. I understand this feeling well. I’ve often been torn while thinking about how best to serve: do I give a homeless person cash, perhaps enabling them to practice alcoholism? Or, do I walk by without making eye contact? Well, HandUp has a different approach. Sammie Rayner is one of the cofounders of HandUp. You could say that the universe conspired to set her up for just this type of work. Her parents were business owners. As a young person, Sammie cared for her grandfather as he was suffering from Alzheimer's disease. These two early influences seemed to set her on a journey to discov