Rahama Wright and Shea Yeleen

Abstract

Rahama Wright and Shea Yeleen is the story of a young female social entrepreneur, Rahama Wright, who started a nonprofit venture, Shea Yeleen, to train women in West Africa with a more lucrative livelihood by manufacturing shea butter to earn higher wages. The case describes the shea butter industry in Africa, the role of women in the industry, and Wright's background in nonprofit and government as her rationale for starting a nonprofit venture. The case outlines the different organizational forms that nascent entrepreneurs could start when creating a venture and ends with a decision point if Wright should continue running a nonprofit or if she should convert to a for-profit social venture. The case offers students an opportunity to understand the differences between nonprofits and for-profit ventures from organizational, strategic, and personal perspectives. Given Wright's goals and the dynamics of the shea butter industry, students learn that running a nonprofit is not sustainable and find that she did convert to a for-profit social venture in order to accomplish her mission of empowering women in the Sahel region of Africa.