Social entrepreneurs are a fairly new group in the sub-umbrella of entrepreneurship, entailing individuals who apply business practices to solve larger societal problems such as poverty, malnutrition, or pollution.
These entrepreneurs recognize the social problem and thus manage a venture in the attempt to make an overall social change, regardless of the effort it may take. The end performance is measured much differently than typical entrepreneurships, since profit is not a main concern; the focus instead revolves around the societal change that occurs.
Social Entrepreneurship Getting More Attention
As a result, most social entrepreneurs work through non profit or government-affiliated organizations. Recent college graduates are best fitted for this type of work since they have just left a setting in which they were more than likely exposed to many lessons about social problems, and additionally have yet to be fully engulfed into the corporate work of entrepreneurship.
It takes a certain type of person to administer this type of social change, which is why this field of business remains a growing endeavor. In this economy, many business professionals do not want to waste their time on something that does not turn a profit, thus lacking the realization that it is turning a different kind of profit through its work.
However, even through a field as obscure as social entrepreneurship, all 30,000 entrepreneurs around the globe together have generated $40 billion in revenue, while still giving much back to the community. Their overarching goal is not solely to generate a profit, but to generate enough so that they are able to donate their efforts to the community, whatever their endeavor may be.
Case Study on Social Entrepreneurship
One of the most current recognizable figures in this movement is Blake Mycoskie, a participant on CBS’s The Amazing Race, whose campaign “Tom’s Shoes” has been featured on a prominent AT&T commercial which explains his cause. For every pair of his company’s shoes that are sold, Mycoskie donates a pair to children in need around the world, basing his ideas on the poverty stricken areas of Argentina.
This has helped to give the movement itself more publicity, since the ad campaign for AT&T has been playing for months since the original air date. Mycoskie’s campaign alone has earned nearly $5 million since its inception three years ago, and has donated more than 140,000 pairs of shoes to needy children around the world. His company has helped add to the increasing pile of revenue which this field produces through contributing to those less fortunate.
Young Social Entrepreneurs Take Charge
BusinessWeek has recently published an article about the most promising social entrepreneurs, many of whom are in their 20s and 30s; most of these innovators have helped the environment in some way or helped in getting those in poverty access to things we take for granted: books, food, energy, etc.
It is important that this type of endeavor gets recognized on a larger scale so that people can recognize the effort these young entrepreneurs are putting in, and the changes they have made in the world. It is difficult to stray from an MBA-beaten path and form your own individual company with the sole intent on giving back to the community, but so far 30,000 individuals have managed to do so.
Your Thoughts on Social Entrepreneurship
Editor Note: Are you into social entrepreneurship? What are some of your experience that you have with social entrepreneurship that you would like to share with us?
Feel free to share your thoughts by commenting below. Hearing from you is priceless.
This post was contributed by Tiffany Davis, who writes about best online college classes. She welcomes your feedback at TiffanyMDavis82 [at] gmail.com
Photo Credits: (- Rafael Rente -)
Wayne Liew is an online marketing consultant, online marketer and editor of Wayne Liew Dot Com. 
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Ah, I always get the feeling that Tom’s Shoes is a smiling poster child that is all polished on the front and has a fat wad of cash in his back pocket, and meanwhile everyone is fixated staring at his shoes! Did you know Tom’s Shoes are manufactured in China, Ethiopia, & Argentina? http://www.tomsshoes.com/content.asp?tid=295 Having worked in China for many years, I can tell you first hand they do not operate without oppressive conditions. It’s ingrained into the mindset of the line-workers and management and it doesn’t work otherwise. Tom’s states that Intertek, a third-party auditor, visits the factories once a year. lol.Intertek made the news in 2007 http://www.ciw-online.org/no_slave_labor.html for giving the OK to a tomato farm which was later brought under federal investigation, leading to a win by the farmworkers against Burger King in 2008. “Federal prosecutors filed charges last week in a case in which farmworkers picking tomatoes in the Immokalee area say their bosses “beat them and chained their hands to keep them from leaving and finding other jobs.” The criminal complaint went on to describe the workers’ inhumane living conditions, saying workers were “locked in box trucks, crates and sheds,” by their bosses. Following the charges, authorities arrested four members of an Immokalee-based farm labor operation.”
Intertek was again in the news in May 2009, for OK’ing poisoned maize in a scandal in Kenya. http://www.nation.co.ke/News/-/1056/597098/-/u690f2/-/index.html and in a case in Jordan where workers were beaten and denied pay.
Do you have faith in their once-a-year audit? How about manufacturing the shoes in the US.. were you provide jobs, help American kids and don’t have to rely on companies like Intertek and profiteering factory owners exploiting their workers?
The shoes can’t cost more than a dollar to manufacture. If they’ve indeed brought in USD 5 million, they’ve given away about USD 140,000 of it? Well, minus the cost of flying a private plane around the globe to hand out the shoes and run up an AT&T global roaming charge. Sure the cause is good but just realize the enormous profit they’re making, and at least consider the human cost of this profit.
Ah, I always get the feeling that Tom’s Shoes is a smiling poster child that is all polished on the front and has a fat wad of cash in his back pocket, and meanwhile everyone is fixated staring at his shoes! Did you know Tom’s Shoes are manufactured in China, Ethiopia, & Argentina? http://www.tomsshoes.com/content.asp?tid=295 Having worked in China for many years, I can tell you first hand they do not operate without oppressive conditions. It’s ingrained into the mindset of the line-workers and management and it doesn’t work otherwise. Tom’s states that Intertek, a third-party auditor, visits the factories once a year. lol.Intertek made the news in 2007 http://www.ciw-online.org/no_slave_labor.html for giving the OK to a tomato farm which was later brought under federal investigation, leading to a win by the farmworkers against Burger King in 2008. “Federal prosecutors filed charges last week in a case in which farmworkers picking tomatoes in the Immokalee area say their bosses “beat them and chained their hands to keep them from leaving and finding other jobs.” The criminal complaint went on to describe the workers’ inhumane living conditions, saying workers were “locked in box trucks, crates and sheds,” by their bosses. Following the charges, authorities arrested four members of an Immokalee-based farm labor operation.”
Intertek was again in the news in May 2009, for OK’ing poisoned maize in a scandal in Kenya. http://www.nation.co.ke/News/-/1056/597098/-/u690f2/-/index.html and in a case in Jordan where workers were beaten and denied pay.
Do you have faith in their once-a-year audit? How about manufacturing the shoes in the US.. were you provide jobs, help American kids and don’t have to rely on companies like Intertek and profiteering factory owners exploiting their workers?
The shoes can’t cost more than a dollar to manufacture. If they’ve indeed brought in USD 5 million, they’ve given away about USD 140,000 of it? Well, minus the cost of flying a private plane around the globe to hand out the shoes and run up an AT&T global roaming charge. Sure the cause is good but just realize the enormous profit they’re making, and at least consider the human cost of this profit.
We encourage you to support Tom’s Shoes and their efforts. For like minded people, you may also be interested http://www.bodoblankets.com where they donate a blanket to those in need for every blanket sold. Hip hip hooray for the One for One movement!
We are founded on the three core values of (1) charitable giving, (2) the use of recycled or organic yarns and (3) made in the USA. By keeping our products manufactured in the United States we hope to save jobs domestically while ensuring that no child labor is used in the production of our blankets.