Social Entrepreneurship: Agents For Change

Social entrepreneurship has evolved over the past decade to promote change on a large scale.

According to PBS.org business entrepreneurs create and transform entire industries.  Where as social entrepreneurs act as change agents for society.

Although change can come about slowly in any industry, it’s still necessary to have a plan and implement it effectively in order to promote the needed changes.

In social entrepreneurship it’s important that the new approaches bring about solutions that are sustainable and create social value.  When the core belief is to better a system so that a certain group of people (or even a country) have better access to healthy foods, adequate shelter, medical care or even education, it’s vital that the organization work cooperatively to ensure the goals are met quickly and efficiently.

One of the challenges social entrepreneurs are facing is that new for profits are coming in to compete with non profits to serve the needs of the community.  This can be a challenge as non profits receive a majority of their funds from private donors or government agencies.  When there are more organizations competing for funding, more organizations get less money or fewer organizations get more money.

J. Gregory Dees, author of The Meaning of Social Entrepreneurship, recognizes that social entrepreneurs are adopting progressive and innovative methods for doing business because now the stakes are high and the opportunities are tremendous.