Social Entrepreneurship is both a philosophy and a practice. Philosophically it takes a cue from Jean Baptiste Say, one of the intellectual godfathers of entrepreneurship:
Social Entrepreneurship “is a way of moving resources from low yield activities to high yield activities”, with the specific goal of addressing social and environmental problems and challenges we face today.
As an practice we see it across the global, in the non-governmental, non-profit, for-profit, and government sectors. It varies in scope from world-changing to neighborhood changing.

Social Entrepreneurship is about innovation and creating value.
The beauty of it is that regardless of one’s immediate resources, it is accessible. It is a worldview and a type of leadership that mines the natural capital and resources that are available in communities and finds ways to unleash them. It understands that power comes in many forms, not just economic or political power, but also intellectual capital, the passion and engagement of individuals, and social capital. It works whether one is trying to promote positive change from the top down, the bottom up, the “grass tops” work of community leaders, or through coalitions.
Social entrepreneurship isn’t always about creating new organizations; it includes a range of entrepreneurially-minded activities that include innovation, invention, adoption, and adaptation. It might be in the form of:
- Developing new/better goods or services, like solar powered light-bulbs for consumers in the developing world
- New methods of production, like developing a way of creating durable family housing solutions for $300 or less
- Adopting existing solutions to underserved markets, like microfinance
- Creating new forms of supply, like organic farmers partnering with urban businesses to divert waste from the trash to composters, or
- New forms of organization, including new strategic partnerships or alliances, like Denver’s Road Home, a national model for how to bring for-profit, non-profit, and government organizations together to address homelessness.
Social entrepreneurship, in it’s highest and best form, is about developing solutions that are practical, scalable, cost-effective, politically rooted, and sustainable that will make better use of the resources available and gain the necessary support to make some headway addressing our pressing social and environmental problems.
This post was originally published on FutureSpark at spark4impact.com