IA/LM 240 Social Entrepreneurship
Spring 2007

-Home
-Outline
-Definitions
-Resources
-Books
-Funding and Budgets
-Creating Effective Enterprise Pitches
-Enterprise Goal Creation
-Enterprise Concept Plan Contents

SOME DEFINITIONS OF SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP

• “The art and practice of employing entrepreneurial methods to simultaneously pursue financial, social and environmental returns on investment.”
From: The Institute for Social Entrepreneurs 

• “Social Entrepreneurs identify and solve social problems.  They act as change agents for society, seizing opportunities others miss in order to improve systems, invent and disseminate new approaches and advance sustainable solutions that create social and economic value.”
From: “How to Change the World: Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Ideas” by  David Bornstein

• “Social Entrepreneurship is the use of business and entrepreneurial practices to achieve beneficial change in society.”
From: A modification of a definition used in the 2004 NCIIA Conference

• "Nonprofits have to recognize that they're businesses, not just causes. There's a way to combine the very best of the not-for-profit, philanthropic world with the very best of the for-profit, enterprising world. This hybrid is the wave of the future for both profit and nonprofit companies."
From:  "Genius At Work"

• "In the face of this new reality, an increasing number of forward-looking nonprofits are beginning to appreciate the increased revenue, focus and effectiveness that can come from adopting "for profit" business approaches. Increasingly, they are reinventing themselves as social entrepreneurs, combining "the passion of a social mission with an image of business-like discipline, innovation, and determination."