Student by Day, Robin Hood by Night: A How-To Guide

This is part 7 of an 11-part series on Undergraduate Social Entrepreneurship coordinated by the Social Innovation Initiative at Brown University. This post's author is Caitlin Cohen, Chair and Co-Founder of the Mali Health Organizing Project

Student social entrepreneurs find themselves straddling a chasm between the ivory tower and communities facing a total lack of resources. It can be a distinctly uncomfortable split, even for the most limber, and the urge to start Robin-Hooding is overpowering. Many of us have heard the story of Paul Farmer pilfering hundreds of thousands of dollars of medications and equipment from Harvard-affiliated hospitals, but we can't all count on rich benefactors to bail us out -- or our moral high-ground to shield us from legal ramifications.

As an undergraduate, I started an organization called the Mali Health Organizing Project (MHOP). At the time, I had absolutely no idea what I was getting myself into. Since then, though, I've been able to grow it to serve a community of 100,000, mostly by leveraging my university connections. After all, there are plenty of perfectly legal means to Robin-Hood the intellectual and material resources that any college or university has to offer, including:

1) Getting the $

Many universities offer fellowships to help you with summer projects. If you take time off, you might be able to extend that funding into the fall semester. Be sure to apply for everything you are remotely eligible for, while tailoring each application to the specific guidelines of the grant. MHOP-affiliated students have received at least six student grants such as the Starr Fellowship, essentially providing us with a solid start-up labor force.

Also, think outside the box. Lots of offices have discretionary funding. You can cobble funding together from lots of places. Going to a Spanish-speaking country? Ask the Spanish department for $500. The President's office, Dean's office, Chaplain's office, Public Service program and Greek programs are all fair game. And parties can be a great way to raise small ($100-400) amounts of money, by asking students to do what they do best.

2) Professors

Getting a professor on board early can help enormously with your credibility. They can help connect you to people in your field, write you recommendation letters, put their name on your letterhead, join your board and advise you on strategy. If they are a well-known professor, they may be able to connect you with the big-name alumnae or administrators at your university. I even had a professor give me free rent for five months when I was trying to get MHOP off the ground.

3) Independent studies

Many universities allow you to create independent studies. One of MHOP's interns returned to Brown and created a class on high-impact user-driven development. The course used MHOP as a case study, with the hope of promoting constructive criticism. For term papers, I sent out a list of questions that could help improve our programs (eg, does a mother's local language literacy or colonial language literacy make a bigger impact on child survival?). Some of the papers were beautifully researched, and incredibly helpful for grant applications, impact documentation and more.

4) Student groups

Students want to help, and most of the time they are not sure how. Form an official student group. Have the student group participate in all parts of the project, not just fundraising.  There are many student groups that have done quite a bit for policy (eg. Genocide Intervention Network) and for fundraising (eg Dance Marathon, FaceAIDS). MHOP's student group gives us a considerable presence on campus, recruiting volunteers, donors and advisors into the organization.

5) Leverage the name of the university

You, by virtue of being a student, have the de facto credibility of your university's name. Use it while you have it. You can absolutely use phrases like "founded by ______ university students" or "with the academic and financial support of ______ University." When a donor sees this information, they might be more likely to take you seriously. (However, this is a double-edged sword. If you are working with a nearby underserved population, the university name might damage your credibility, making you be seen as elitist or detached.)

6) Logistical resources

You have a host of hidden resources at your fingertips. Let's start with an easy one: Free printing. (If you don't have it, ask a department for it.) What about software licenses? Academic databases? Meeting spaces? Mail boxes? Mail metering? At the Development Office, there are plenty of professionals who might advise your fundraising plans. There might also be MBA students around, who can likewise help with your plans. After graduation, you have access to cheap health insurance (often through the alumni office).

There's also free food -- oh, yes,  get good at crashing events. And public relations: send your updates out to the PR department, they will want to brag about you. (Don't forget alumni magazines -- get them to do an article about your work!) You have alumni networks to recruit supporters from. You likely have writing or editing services that can help whip your grant applications into shape. You can find funding to send you to conferences to present your work, and turn to arts departments for volunteer graphic designers,  web designer and more.And that's not even mentioning unlimited library access.

Some of these things are, well, priceless. But some of them have a concrete value. Make sure you calculate what you could have spent on a PO box, on photocopying, on a website, etc. You can count these as in-kind contributions, which give your organization a gravitas much greater than your cash budget.

It feels incredibly satisfying to put a big fat (and real!) number on the resources you've Robin-Hooded. Here's the caveat: know how to either keep these resources or replace them once you graduate. Good luck, and let us know about your coups!

Photo Credit: Eishier