Sara Olsen Mentor 2010

Describe yourself briefly.

When everyone can see environmental and social impact, organizations will compete to have the best impact. Sara started Social Venture Technology (SVT) Group in 2001 to make impact management a standard practice worldwide. SVT helps clients measure, manage and mobilize impact with a particular focus on private equity and entrepreneurship. SVT-designed systems today reveal the impact of @$2Bn in 23+ countries. Sara became obsessed with systemic solutions to poverty after living and working in the Mississippi Delta, where she woke up to the third world within the United States. With MBA and MASW degrees, her most valuable education comes from teaching public high school in Mississippi, helping start a social enterprise at Shorebank Corporation, co-founding the Global Social Venture Competition, and her relationships, in particular with a number of the people whom she has loved.

Describe why you are an Unreasonable Mentor.

Bob Pattillo and I had been talking for years about the personal dynamics of social entrepreneurship- what it means for peoples' relationships, their finances, their lifestyles, and how to recognize that so as to be as prepared as possible to navigate it. He invited me to lead a conversation about this and added if I came to the Unreasonable Mansion, "it would change my life."