OneRoof

What is OneRoof?
OneRoof is a for-profit social enterprise, a new kind of business operating in the developing world that is driven by dual social and financial missions:

To change the way that essential services are delivered to the world's rural poor — in terms of quality, affordability, relevance, and sustainable use of natural resources; and
To guarantee financial sustainability by ensuring that our franchisees, subsidiaries, and headquarters make a profit in the process.

What do we do?
In both our company-owned stores and in future franchises, our new delivery platform provides citizens of rural communities with access to essential services. Information technology, education, and economic opportunities are the tools we provide our customers, employees, and franchisees to improve their own lives and their communities.

We identify, train and provide ongoing business support to entrepreneurs who run their own OneRoof stores. A typical OneRoof franchisee builds his or her business around our central IT service—internet access, computer courses, printing, digital photography. The franchisee then provides valued-added services such as eLearning/distance learning, financial services, e-ticketing, and eventually employment generation that can allow talented young people the choice to stay in their rural communities.

Where do we work?
OneRoof , Inc. is a U.S. corporation with headquarters in San Francisco that launched in October 2005. We work through a wholly-owned subsidiary in India, OneRoof Services Pvt. Ltd. We currently have 10 stores open for business in India's Tamil Nadu state. These stores are located in rural communities that range in population from 9,000 to 30,000 people.

How do we work?
OneRoof works as an honest broker, collaborating with partners that meet rigorous criteria for exceptional content, product quality, and business integrity. We work with experts in their fields to deliver a range of relevant services where demand has not been met—from low cost computing and job skills courses to cash-based ticketing services in rural areas where people would otherwise have to travel long distances to buy a simple bus ticket. Partners include local companies, multinational corporations, non-governmental organizations (NGO's), government agencies, and individuals.

Why did we create this business?
OneRoof’s customers are citizens of under-served, rural areas of the developing world. We offer our customers access and opportunity: access to high-quality, low-cost goods, services and information, and the opportunity to learn, earn and improve the lives of their families and communities. We believe that profitable, sustainable, and socially relevant small business can be a powerful catalyst for transforming lives. OneRoof is a new kind of business, with a different kind of mission. We measure our success by a double bottom line: to do well and to do good.

Who are we?
OneRoof builds upon the experience of its predecessor organization, World Corps, a U.S. nonprofit founded in 1998. World Corps worked in rural communities of India, Mexico, Kenya, and the Philippines carrying out youth entrepreneurship training and developing Internet telecenters. Six former staff members of World Corps founded OneRoof, bringing considerable expertise in the field of international development. Since our launch in October 2005, we have added people with proven business experience to create a management team that knows the social side and the business side of the for-profit social enterprise we are building.