VisionSpring

VisionSpring, formerly Scojo Foundation, is a social enterprise founded by Jordan Kassalow and Scott Berrie in 2001, a year after Kassalow co-founded Scojo Vision LLC, a designer and distributor of high-end reading glasses.^[1]

Their proclaimed mission is "to ensure equitable and affordable eyeglass is available to every individual to live a productive life".

About VisionSpring

VisionSpring works to ensure affordable access to eyewear, everywhere. The World Health Organization estimates that over 700? people who need eyeglasses do not have access to this important product. This leads to an estimated 35% loss of economic productivity, children falling out of school, and a significant loss of quality of life. Since inception, VisionSpring has sold over 1.6M eyeglasses to their target customers who typically earn between $1-$8 per day. As a social enterprise, VisionSpring deploys philanthropic capital to uncover economically viable business models that can scale through market forces. In 2013, their operations in Central America were on the cusp of achieving this important milestone.

VisionSpring has two working models. One called the Hub & Spoke model and the other the Partnership model. The Economist likened their Hub & Spoke model to "Lenscrafters meets Mary Kay." In this model, they operate fixed cross-subsidized optical shops with optometrists from which a small band of "Vision Entrepreneurs" fan out into the neighboring communities to provide eye screenings, sell reading and sunglasses, and refer more advanced cases back to the store to see the optometrist. They operate this model in India and El Salvador and have active plans to scale this model to several other countries in Central America including Honduras, Nicaragua, and Guatemala. The Partnership model, typified by their work with BRAC in Bangladesh, helps organizations with existing distribution networks and teaches them to add vision services into their product offering. VisionSpring operates this model in over a dozen countries including Rwanda, Morocco, Afghanistan, Paraguay, and Ethiopia.

Impact and Success

VisionSpring is an award winning social enterprise. They have been widely recognized having been honored by winning competitions and awards such as: The World Bank Development Market Place Competition, The BYU Innovator Award, the Duke University's Social Innovation Award, The Aspen Institute's McNulty Prize, the Draper Richards Kaplan Fellowship, the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship, the Schwab Foundation Social Entrepreneur of the Year Award, the Ashoka Fellowship, the Forbes Impact 30 and many others.

Through the sale of over 1.6M VisionSpring has created over $269M of economic impact. Studies conducted by the University of Michigan demonstrated that a pair of reading glasses increases a workers productivity by 35% resulting in an increased earning potential of an average customer by $381 over the two year estimated life of the product..^[2]

The success of VisionSpring’s capitalistic and philanthropic operation has been used as a learning example and role model for social enterprises. Stanford Social Innovation Review,^[3] Handbook of Research on Social Entrepreneurship ^[4] and Next Generation Business Strategies for the Base of the Pyramid: New Approaches for Building Mutual Value^[5] have featured VisionSpring and published its experience to allow other social enterprise industry learn from them.

Funding

VisionSpring has received funding from a number of foundations focused on high impact philanthropy including the Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation,^[6] Skoll Foundation,^[7] Mulago Foundation,^[8] and Jasmine Social Investments.^[9] The Bohemian Foundation, The Peery Foundation, The Lonely Planet Foundation, The Lavelle Fund for the blind. They are also the primary recipient of Warby Parker's One for One business model.

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