What Exactly Is Social Entrepreneurship?

via NextBillion.net

From Forbes: What Exactly Is Social Entrepreneurship?

My comments: The for-profit and non-profit worlds are merging. For-profits see the monetary advantage of green practices and investing for social benefit. The fair trade market is a good example. Fair sells.

On the flip side, non-profits understand that they must not only be mission-driven, but also be able to demonstrate measurable returns– social returns– on their investments. The key words are impact, scalability, and sustainability.

So when it comes to the social entrepreneur, he’s, well, an entrepreneur like any other– mostly. The gist of it, according to the author of this Forbes piece, is that the social entrepreneur strives to operate by business standards while bringing the dual returns of profit and social outcomes.

Should social entrepreneurs focus on monetary profit as well as doing good? Can they do both well at the same time? What do you think?

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What makes an entrepreneur social?

“Social entrepreneur” is a term with many definitions and one that keeps changing. But, in my own words, a social entrepreneur is a leader and someone who innovates to meet a need and solve human and environmental problems.

The Huffington Post has joined the Schwab Foundation to dedicate an entire page to social entrepreneurs. You can check it out, and follow it on Twitter, here:

HuffPost Social Entrepreneurship

One evolving change in the perception of social entrepreneurship has to do with profit. With the advent of social business and social venture capital, a venture can be for profit or nonprofit but in either case there needs to be a social return on investment.

Some continue to feel that social ventures have been traditionally nonprofit and should stay that way. They feel uncomfortable with “making money off of the poor”.

What do you think? Should an entrepreneur with a social venture make money?

Don’t you just love a (global) good list?

I know I love a good list. And it’s nice to share the love (of a good list, in this case) on Valentine’s Day.

Check out Social Velocity’s A Monster List of Social Innovation Books, Blogs, Conferences, Funders.

I’m sure I’ll be using the same list to find more things to blog about here.  For example, I just found on the list Beth Kanter’s blog on How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media. In fact, I’m subscribing to the RSS right now!

What are some of your favorite lists of resources, blogs, or other information sources online?