Revision 451630812 of "VisionSpring" on enwiki

== 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.<ref>http://www.draperrichards.org/fellows/visionspring.html</ref>

'''Mission''': To ensure that there is equitable and affordable eyeglass available to every individual to live a productive life.

=== About VisionSpring ===
VisionSpring in India was launched in 2005. About 25 crore people are estimated to suffer from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presbyopia  Presbyopia]. The organization today provides eyesight to a huge Indian population, causing them to be more productive. VisionSpring, with its business model, also provide employment opportunities in India by training Vision Entrepreneurs(VEs) to give eye screenings, sell eyeglasses to the different communities and to refer customers who needed prescription glasses to a VisionSpring optometrist. Once hired, a vision entrepreneur will receive a package containing marketing materials and the details required to carry out an eye test. For every pair of glasses sold, the VEs will earn between 40 to 50 Rupees. VEs are responsible of reaching out to the innermost area of rural India, with a population of nearly 50,000. VisionSpring also conducts about 60,000 eye screenings in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andhra_Pradesh  Andhra Pradesh] alone every year.<ref>http://modernmedicare.co.in/2011/02/18/visionspring-india-making-a-difference-towards-presbyopia-2/</ref>

=== Impact and Success ===
VisionSpring has impacted 11 countries, benefitting both vision entrepreneurs and their customers. Customers were able to improve their productivity and effectiveness which in turn increase their income with improved vision. Vision entrepreneurs are empowered with a job that sustains a livelihood though the sales of the glasses. These caused an aggregate increment in the nations’ [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gross_domestic_product  GDP]. By 2007, Scojo's "India programme has become the organization’s largest and fastest-growing, training more than 450 Vision Entrepreneurs and selling more than $100,000 worth of glasses." <ref>Dan L. (2007). "Microfranchising: using markets, community to cure illness, poverty" ''Mint''</ref> In 2010, research in India have shown that VisionSpring has generated $228 million in economic growth and increased the earning potential of an average customer by $381. <ref>http://www.visionspring.org/newscenter/news-detail.php?id=876</ref>

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,<ref>http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/freeing_the_social_entrepreneur/</ref> Handbook of Research on Social Entrepreneurship <ref>Fayolle, A(ed.), Matlay, H(ed.) (2011) ''Handbook of Research on Social Entrepreneurship.'' Edward Elgar Publishing Limited, UK</ref> and Next Generation Business Strategies for the Base of the Pyramid: New Approaches for Building Mutual Value<ref>Ted, L, Stuart L. H. (2010) ''Next Generation Business Strategies for the Base of the Pyramid: New Approaches for Building Mutual Value''. FT Press, New Jersey</ref> have featured VisionSpring and published its experience to allow other social enterprise industry learn from them. 

VisionSpring has won awards such as 2010 CASE Awards for Social Enterprising Innovation <ref>http://www.caseatduke.org/events/ESIaward/2010Winner.html</ref> and several others.<ref>http://visionspring.org/newscenter/news.php</ref>

=== Shortfalls ===
VisionSpring pledges to reach out and serve those who are living under $4 per day.<ref>http://www.warbyparker.com/visionspring</ref> Considering [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Bank  World Bank’s] definition of population who lives in extreme poverty (with less than $1.25 per day) and moderate poverty (with less than $2 per day), VisionSpring might not have contributed much to help such a population.<ref>http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SI.POV.2DAY</ref> VisionSpring might have to reassess the price of the glasses they are selling especially if they are planning to reach out to more countries in poverty.

Being a social enterprise, VisionSpring aims to be self-sustainable, however it still relies heavily on charity, it managed to gather $1.7million in 2010.<ref>Forbes Asia; Feb2011, Vol. 7 Issue 2, p26-26, 1p</ref>

The Vision Entrepreneurs, who will conduct eyesight screening, are trained shortly within 3 days, the reliability of their assessment skills can be questioned.<ref>http://inspiredeconomist.com/2011/08/31/visionspring-a-model-toms-shoes-would-be-wise-to-adopt/</ref>

== References ==
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