Why I started this Website...

Social entrepreneurs (SEs) apply the discipline of business to positively impact or solve social problems. The field of Social Entrepreneurship is rapidly growing all around the globe, with support from college and on-line courses; foundations; organizations such as Ashoka; publications such as The Stanford Social Innovation Review (SSIR); National and local governments; NPOs; and others.

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However, alongside this growth thought leaders such as Daniella Papi -Thornton, former deputy director of the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship at Oxford’s Saïd Business School, have noted “Many educators and funders share my concern that the focus now is on a distilled and mass-produced version of the promise of the social entrepreneur. They mostly focus on training people with the skills they need to start a social business, neglecting the many other skills required to fully understand a problem and fuel social change.”

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https://ssir.org/articles/entry/tackling_heropreneurship

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In this Blog I want to share my research, writing and practical experience in working on challenges related to social problems.

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Three aspects of the challenges SEs face have particular importance.

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1-On the Strategic Level the so called “Wicked Problems” will continue to be the most challenging social problems facing social entrepreneurs.

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Wicked problems include climate change, drug dealing, human trafficking, income inequality, racial, ethnic, religious discrimination, unsustainable capitalism, among others. The urgent need  to address wicked problems reflects their powerful impact in degrading the overall quality of life locally, regionally, globally.

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2-On the Operational Level social entrepreneurs will need to greatly improve the sustainability of their social enterprises. Currently 83% of social enterprises fail in three years or less. If social enterprises continue to fail so quickly it’s difficult to see how they can generate sufficient positive impact to affect significant change in the social problem(s) they target.

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3. Social entrepreneurship shares DNA with many related fields ie., Business, Community Organization, Systems Thinking, Planned Change and many others.

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Selecting tools and methodologies from this extensive material can easily lead to confusion, false starts, paralysis by analysis, and failure. 

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My hope is that  the Practitioner Guide, Toolbox, and Updates sections will assist both aspiring, and experienced social activists, to cut through the fog of social entrepreneurship to launch successful and sustainable social enterprises.

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The following  are suggestions on how different segments of the social entrepreneur community can make use of material in this blog.

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• Social entrepreneurs who are starting to plan their social enterprise.

  • Read Modules 1-4 of the Practitioner Guide to help you organize your initial research.

  • Once you are satisfied with your initial Theory of change, Ecosystem map, One Page Business plan, review Module 5, to use the lessons on failure, to fine tune your planning before you start burning, time, money, and energy.

  • Proceed to Modules 6-10 of the Practitioner guide.

  • Review Appendices 1, 2 of the Practitioner Guide to identify resources that can assist you.
     

• Social entrepreneurs seeking to scale up the positive impact of their enterprise on the social problem they have targeted.

  • Review Modules 9, 10 and Appendices 1, 2 of The Practitioner Guide.

  • Review the Updated/Good Reads material on a regular basis.
     

• Social entrepreneurs whose mission includes targeting Wicked Problems

  • Review Module 11 and Appendices 1,2 of The Practitioner Guide.

  • Review Part 2 of the Toolbox.
     

• Community Organizers

  • Review Part 1 of the Toolbox, and Appendices 1, 2 of The Practitioner Guide.
     

• Teachers

  • Review the Practitioner Guide for material to complement/supplement lesson plans

  • Review the Updated/Good Reads material on a regular basis.
     

• Students

  • Review the Practitioner Guide for a short introduction and overview of Social Entrepreneurship

  • Review the Updated/Good Reads material on a regular basis.
     

GETTING STARTED

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Each topic on the Tool Bar has a brief introduction to its' material. Suggest you review all the introductions.

Determine which material meets your immediate needs. 

As time permits skim the different sections to familiarize yourself with the contents for future use.