Promoting the Field of Social Entrepreneurship
Social Entrepreneurship is the work of a Social Entrepreneur.
What is a Social Entrepreneur?
According to Ashoka, "Social entrepreneurs are individuals with innovative solutions to society's most pressing social problems. They are ambitious and persistent, tackling major social issues and offering new ideas for wide-scale change.
Rather than leaving societal needs to the government or business sectors, social entrepreneurs find what is not working and solve the problem by changing the system, spreading the solution, and persuading entire societies to take new leaps.
Social entrepreneurs often seem to be possessed by their ideas, committing their lives to changing the direction of their field. They are both visionaries and ultimate realists, concerned with the practical implementation of their vision above all else.
Each social entrepreneur presents ideas that are user-friendly, understandable, ethical, and engage widespread support in order to maximize the number of local people that will stand up, seize their idea, and implement with it. In other words, every leading social entrepreneur is a mass recruiter of local changemakers-a role model proving that citizens who channel their passion into action can do almost anything.
Over the past two decades, the citizen sector has discovered what the business sector learned long ago: There is nothing as powerful as a new idea in the hands of a first-class entrepreneur.
Why "Social" Entrepreneur?
Just as entrepreneurs change the face of business, social entrepreneurs act as the change agents for society, seizing opportunities others miss and improving systems, inventing new approaches, and creating solutions to change society for the better. While a business entrepreneur might create entirely new industries, a social entrepreneur comes up with new solutions to social problems and then implements them on a large scale.
Historical Examples of Leading Social Entrepreneurs:
Susan B. Anthony (U.S.): Fought for Women's Rights in the United States, including the right to control property and helped spearhead adoption of the 19th amendment.
Vinoba Bhave (India): Founder and leader of the Land Gift Movement, he caused the redistribution of more than 7,000,000 acres of land to aid India's untouchables and landless.
Dr. Maria Montessori (Italy): Developed the Montessori approach to early childhood education.
Florence Nightingale (U.K.): Founder of modern nursing, she established the first school for nurses and fought to improve hospital conditions."
Social entrepreneurs change the world. This lens will focus on the phenomena of social entrepreneurship, social entrepreneurs themselves, and issues pertaining to developing the field and thus, transforming our global community in positive ways.
We welcome your participation.
What is a Social Entrepreneur?
According to Ashoka, "Social entrepreneurs are individuals with innovative solutions to society's most pressing social problems. They are ambitious and persistent, tackling major social issues and offering new ideas for wide-scale change.
Rather than leaving societal needs to the government or business sectors, social entrepreneurs find what is not working and solve the problem by changing the system, spreading the solution, and persuading entire societies to take new leaps.
Social entrepreneurs often seem to be possessed by their ideas, committing their lives to changing the direction of their field. They are both visionaries and ultimate realists, concerned with the practical implementation of their vision above all else.
Each social entrepreneur presents ideas that are user-friendly, understandable, ethical, and engage widespread support in order to maximize the number of local people that will stand up, seize their idea, and implement with it. In other words, every leading social entrepreneur is a mass recruiter of local changemakers-a role model proving that citizens who channel their passion into action can do almost anything.
Over the past two decades, the citizen sector has discovered what the business sector learned long ago: There is nothing as powerful as a new idea in the hands of a first-class entrepreneur.
Why "Social" Entrepreneur?
Just as entrepreneurs change the face of business, social entrepreneurs act as the change agents for society, seizing opportunities others miss and improving systems, inventing new approaches, and creating solutions to change society for the better. While a business entrepreneur might create entirely new industries, a social entrepreneur comes up with new solutions to social problems and then implements them on a large scale.
Historical Examples of Leading Social Entrepreneurs:
Susan B. Anthony (U.S.): Fought for Women's Rights in the United States, including the right to control property and helped spearhead adoption of the 19th amendment.
Vinoba Bhave (India): Founder and leader of the Land Gift Movement, he caused the redistribution of more than 7,000,000 acres of land to aid India's untouchables and landless.
Dr. Maria Montessori (Italy): Developed the Montessori approach to early childhood education.
Florence Nightingale (U.K.): Founder of modern nursing, she established the first school for nurses and fought to improve hospital conditions."
Social entrepreneurs change the world. This lens will focus on the phenomena of social entrepreneurship, social entrepreneurs themselves, and issues pertaining to developing the field and thus, transforming our global community in positive ways.
We welcome your participation.
Things to Do if You Are An Aspiring Social Entrepreneur
By Jessica Flannery, Founder of Kiva.org
Things to do if you are an aspiring social entrepreneur
Learn: Read, research, write, etc. Go to lectures. Absorb whatever you can on the topics that interest you. Get an idea of what the issues are. Take a class or just make up your own little reading lists and assignments if you love structure.
Listen: Reach out to a real, specific, human being who could be your "customer" (someone whose problems you want to understand, and who you'd like to serve by addressing those problems). Listen very carefully. Learn as much as you can. Then, reach out to another person, then another, then another. (Read Paul Polak's amazing book, Out of Poverty, for much more on this concept!)
Ask: As you start to amass questions and can't find the answers yourself, reach out to people who might. Get their opinions, their insight, their advice. Learn how their organizations work, what problems they face, what challenges and successes they've had.
Jump: At a certain point, you just need to start pursuing what resonates with you. Follow it as best you can, wherever it leads. It's OK if you don't know what the next five steps are. It's enough to take one step in the direction of your interest. Sometimes you can only find the second step after you've taken the first one.
Keep Dreaming: Kiva represents my wildest dream of what I wanted to do in the world. And it's happening! I couldn't be more thankful for this. But something else is happening too: The faster Kiva goes, the more it grows, and the more I'm convinced that other great changes are possible in the world. I hope never to stop dreaming, preparing, and being ready to see what's next.
A special note: There are many ways to be entrepreneurial and create significant social change without starting your own organization. Sometimes you can be more effective at doing the specific thing you want to do in the world by joining an existing group or project, and revolutionizing from within.
Learn: Read, research, write, etc. Go to lectures. Absorb whatever you can on the topics that interest you. Get an idea of what the issues are. Take a class or just make up your own little reading lists and assignments if you love structure.
Listen: Reach out to a real, specific, human being who could be your "customer" (someone whose problems you want to understand, and who you'd like to serve by addressing those problems). Listen very carefully. Learn as much as you can. Then, reach out to another person, then another, then another. (Read Paul Polak's amazing book, Out of Poverty, for much more on this concept!)
Ask: As you start to amass questions and can't find the answers yourself, reach out to people who might. Get their opinions, their insight, their advice. Learn how their organizations work, what problems they face, what challenges and successes they've had.
Jump: At a certain point, you just need to start pursuing what resonates with you. Follow it as best you can, wherever it leads. It's OK if you don't know what the next five steps are. It's enough to take one step in the direction of your interest. Sometimes you can only find the second step after you've taken the first one.
Keep Dreaming: Kiva represents my wildest dream of what I wanted to do in the world. And it's happening! I couldn't be more thankful for this. But something else is happening too: The faster Kiva goes, the more it grows, and the more I'm convinced that other great changes are possible in the world. I hope never to stop dreaming, preparing, and being ready to see what's next.
A special note: There are many ways to be entrepreneurial and create significant social change without starting your own organization. Sometimes you can be more effective at doing the specific thing you want to do in the world by joining an existing group or project, and revolutionizing from within.
Interesting Stuff for Social Entrepreneurs
Worth a look...
From time to time, I stumble upon things that we should consider. I'll post them here.
- The Man Who Planted Trees
- A short and spectacular film about community transformation and the difference one life can make.
The Draper Richards Foundation
Investing in Social Entrepreneurs Who Change the World
According to the The Draper Richards Foundation, they "Empower People to Change the World." Sounds strangely familiar. As Victor Hugo once said, "There is nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come."This is a foundation that all social entrepreneurs should know well. The company welcomes nominations for people and projects they should fund. "We select entrepreneurs with tremendous talent and desire to build sustainable organizations. Our grants are $300,000 over three years. If you know a social entrepreneur who can change the world, let us know."
Jenny Shilling Stein co-founded the Draper Richards Foundation in 2002 with Bill Draper and Robin Richards Donohoe to identify and support the most talented social entrepreneurs. She serves as the Executive Director of the Foundation, where she is responsible for strategic direction and management of the portfolio.
Ms. Shilling Stein states, "Our sole focus is early stage social entrepreneurs. Funding and working with social entrepreneurs is a fascinating and highly engaging practice.
"Evaluating social entrepreneurs and their new ventures presents a variety of opportunities and challenges. Funders, like the Draper Richards Foundation tend to focus our evaluation on the capacity of organizations: the skills and potential of the entrepreneurs, growth opportunities, and governance strength. Social entrepreneurs strive to affect thousands if not millions of people with their models. They use novel approaches to create systemic, wide-reaching change. It is exciting to watch them grow and succeed."
The Draper Richards Foundation invests heavily in the critical start-up phase of nonprofit programs. Send them a note to thank them for their work. And don't forget to nominate a social entrepreneur!
For more information, see the Draper Richards Foundation website: http://www.draperrichards.org/
An International Group of Social Entrepreneurs
The Wonderful World of Surgance, Inc.
Surgance is a new, grassroots organization of Social Entrepreneurs changing the world, everyday, everywhere.
Surgance starts and manages new nonprofit programs that make a difference locally and globally.
Read more about the exciting things happening with this nonprofit by subscribing to the Surgance Central Blog: http://surgance.typepad.com/surgance_central/
Surgance starts and manages new nonprofit programs that make a difference locally and globally.
Read more about the exciting things happening with this nonprofit by subscribing to the Surgance Central Blog: http://surgance.typepad.com/surgance_central/
Fetching RSS feed... please stand byTOMS Shoes
Making a Difference, One Little Foot at a Time
Have you ever heard the TOMS Shoes story? Check out their website http://www.tomsshoes.com/, but here it is in a nutshell:
TOMS gives away shoes to children that need them all over the world.
Here's how it works: When you buy a pair of shoes from TOMS, they give one away to a child in need.
TOMS allows you to shop online and they will also ship your shoes to you. FREE, of course. Check 'em out and do good while buying your next pair of shoes from a true social entrepreneur.
Public, Private and Social Sector Partnerships
Major League Baseball and Boys and Girls Club of America Partner to Make a Difference
One thing that I advocate on behalf of is the development of strategic alliances between the public, private and social sectors to transform communities. One example that is making a difference: Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities (RBI)
Through a collaboration with Major League Baseball, Boys & Girls Clubs of America has expanded or established baseball and fast-pitch softball programs in more than 150 communities nationwide. All RBI leagues incorporate Quick SMART!, a condensed version of Boys & Girls Clubs of America's SMART Moves prevention/education program designed to teach players to avoid alcohol and other drug use and premature sexual involvement.
That's what I am talking about.
Through a collaboration with Major League Baseball, Boys & Girls Clubs of America has expanded or established baseball and fast-pitch softball programs in more than 150 communities nationwide. All RBI leagues incorporate Quick SMART!, a condensed version of Boys & Girls Clubs of America's SMART Moves prevention/education program designed to teach players to avoid alcohol and other drug use and premature sexual involvement.
That's what I am talking about.
Reader Feedback
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Oct 1, 2010 @ 5:24 pm | delete
- Generic Viagra Great post. I always enjoy seeing another artists process. I learn so much. Really makes me want to pull out my oils. Viagra Online
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Transformation
Jan 8, 2009 @ 10:46 am | delete
- Thanks for the feedback. I believe social entrepreneurs can and do make a difference in the world.
Here's to stimulating conversation and pushing the field forward...
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qlcoach
Dec 1, 2008 @ 5:10 pm | delete
- I like this lens a lot for stimulating a conversation about how to achieve positive and healthy social change. I have been a social worker for more than 39 years, and I have tried my part to make this a better world one client at a time. Hope you will see how I still try to help other via The Eby Way. Sincerely: Gary Eby, author and therapist.
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dchestnut
Nov 14, 2008 @ 5:28 pm | delete
- Hi. I applaud your enthusiasm for social entrepreneurship. If you know of social entrepreneurs looking for funding, direct them to
http://www.squidoo.com/groups/funding-for-social-entrepreneurs
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Amazon
Google Blog Search
- Entrepreneurship Prof Looks At Social Versus Commercial Entrepreneurs
- GOOD, a website and magazine that focuses on social causes has acquired Jumo, a startup created by one of Facebook's cofounders and which focuses on matching people with nonprofits that they'd want to support. Read More Social entrepreneurs are ...
- “Innovative India” Events to Showcase Lessons from India's Leading Social ...
- (Justmeans.com / CSR News) - Richard Alderson, co-founder of Mumbai-based social enterprise Journeys for Change, will share insight from India's leading social entrepreneurs on creating greater profit and purpose in the world.
- Launch of role model for social entrepreneurship
- Gunawardane's dream for this venture was to make Investor Eye a role model for social entrepreneurship in Sri Lanka, by taking the capital market research and investment to grassroots and also spending more than 20 percent of its revenue to address a ...
- Faust Announces $100000 Social Entrepreneurship Prize
- University President Drew G. Faust announced the launch of a University-wide contest to encourage student social entrepreneurship in an email to the Harvard community on Wednesday. The President's Challenge will provide ten student groups with ...
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Transformation says:
There is no more exciting field to enter for today's up and coming talent.
Posted January 04, 2009
by Transformation
Transformation
Brian Audia is a social entrepreneur, changing the world through innovation with an inner drive to make it a better place for people everywhere.
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