Individuals who start their own businesses are motivated by many different things. Some people want the freedom of being their own boss or want to pursue their true passion. Others have dreams of making a lot of money and building an empire. However, in the past several years, a new type of entrepreneur has emerged: the social entrepreneur.

Social entrepreneurship is the process by which individuals, startups, and entrepreneurs develop and fund solutions that directly address social issues. A social entrepreneur, therefore, is a person who explores business opportunities that have a positive impact on their community, in society or the world.

• What Is Social Entrepreneurship?
• What Is a Social Entrepreneur?
• What is Social Entrepreneurship Examples?
• What are the 4 Types of Social Entrepreneur?
• What are the 5 Characteristics of Social Entrepreneurship?
• What are the Types of Social Enterprise?
• What are the Benefits of Social Entrepreneurship?
• What is the Main Goal of a Social Entrepreneur?
• What are the 6 Areas for Social Entrepreneurs?
• Who are the Most Successful Social Entrepreneurs?
• What are the 4 Main Elements of Entrepreneurship?

What Is Social Entrepreneurship?

Social entrepreneurship is all about recognizing social problems and achieving social change by employing entrepreneurial principles, processes and operations. It is all about making research to completely define a particular social problem and then organizing, creating and managing a social venture to attain the desired change. The change may or may not include a thorough elimination of a social problem. It may be a lifetime process focusing on the improvement of the existing circumstances.

Read Also: Strategies for Team Building

While general and common business entrepreneurship means taking a lead to open up a new business or diversifying the existing business, social entrepreneurship mainly focuses on creating social capital without measuring the performance in profit or return in monetary terms.

The entrepreneurs in this field are associated with non-profit sectors and organizations. But this does not eliminate the need of making a profit. After all entrepreneurs need capital to carry on with the process and bring a positive change in society.

Along with social problems, social entrepreneurship also focuses on environmental problems. Child Rights foundations, plants for the treatment of waste products and women empowerment foundations are few examples of social ventures. Social entrepreneurs can be those individuals who are associated with non-profit and non-government organizations that raise funds through community events and activities.

In the modern world, there are several well-known social entrepreneurs who have contributed a lot to society. The founder and manager of Grameen Bank, Muhammad Yunus is a contemporary social entrepreneur who has been awarded a Nobel Peace Prize for his venture in the year 2006. The venture has been continuously growing and benefiting a large section of society.

Rang De is another brilliant example of a non-profit social enterprise. Established in the year 2008 by Ramakrishna and Smita Ram, it is an online platform from where rural and urban poor people in India can access micro-credits with an interest rate of as low as 2 percent per annum. Lenders from all across the country can directly lend money to borrowers, track investments and receive regular payments online.

What Is a Social Entrepreneur?

A social entrepreneur is a person who pursues novel applications that have the potential to solve community-based problems. These individuals are willing to take on the risk and effort to create positive changes in society through their initiatives. Social entrepreneurs may believe that this practice is a way to connect you to your life’s purpose, help others find theirs, and make a difference in the world (all while eking out a living).

Widespread use of ethical practices—such as impact investing, conscious consumerism, and corporate social responsibility programs—facilitates the success of social entrepreneurs.

While most entrepreneurs are motivated by the potential to earn a profit, the profit motive does not prevent the ordinary entrepreneur from having a positive impact on society. In his book The Wealth of Nations, the economist Adam Smith explained, “It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own self-interest.”

Smith believed that when individuals pursued their own best interests, they would be guided toward decisions that benefited others. The baker, for example, wants to earn a living to support his family. To accomplish this, they produce a product—bread—which feeds and nourishes hundreds of people.

One example of social entrepreneurship is microfinance institutions. These institutions provide banking services to unemployed or low-income individuals or groups who otherwise would have no other access to financial services.

Other examples of social entrepreneurship include educational programs, providing banking services in underserved areas, and helping children orphaned by epidemic disease. All of these efforts are intended to address unmet needs within communities that have been overlooked or not granted access to services, products, or base essentials available in more developed communities.

A social entrepreneur might also seek to address imbalances in such availability, the root causes behind such social problems, or the social stigma associated with being a resident of such communities. The main goal of a social entrepreneur is not to earn a profit. Rather, a social entrepreneur seeks to implement widespread improvements in society. However, a social entrepreneur must still be financially savvy to succeed in his or her cause.

Social entrepreneurship is related to socially responsible investing (SRI) and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing. SRI is the practice of investing money in companies and funds that have positive social impacts. SRI has also grown in popularity in recent years.

Socially responsible investors will often eschew investments in companies that produce or sell addictive substances (like alcohol, gambling, and tobacco). They may also seek out companies that are engaged in social justice, environmental sustainability, and alternative energy or clean technology efforts.

Socially conscious investors screen potential new investments for environmental, social, and governance (ESG) criteria. This set of standards considers how a company performs as a steward of nature, how it manages relationships with employees, suppliers, customers, and the communities where it operates, and how it treats its company’s leadership, compensates its executives, and approaches audits, internal controls, and shareholder rights.

What is Social Entrepreneurship Examples?

The introduction of freshwater services through the construction of new wells is another example of social entrepreneurship. A social entrepreneur may have the goal of providing access to communities that lack stable utilities of their own.

In the modern era, social entrepreneurship is often combined with technology assets: for example, bringing high-speed internet connectivity to remote communities so that school-age children have more access to information and knowledge resources.

The development of mobile apps that speak to the needs of a particular community is another way social entrepreneurship is expressed. This can include giving individuals ways to alert their city administrations to problems such as burst water mains, downed powerlines, or patterns of repeated traffic accidents.

There are also apps created to report infractions committed by city officials or even law enforcement that can help give a voice to the community through technology.

Below are five companies that practice social entrepreneurship.

TOMS

While it wasn’t the first company to explore social issues, TOMS is arguably the brand that popularized social entrepreneurship over the past decade. Founded by Blake Mycoskie in 2006 after a trip to Argentina, TOMS began a one-for-one social entrepreneurship model, in which a pair of shoes would be given to children in need for every pair of shoes they sold.

Today, TOMS has given over 95 million shoes to people in need, and has expanded their giving model to include access to safe drinking water, eye surgery, bullying prevention and safe births.

Warby Parker

Following TOMS’ success, Warby Parker similarly launched their “Buy a Pair, Give a Pair” program, which has resulted in the company donating over five million pairs of glasses to people in need as of 2019. In 2015, Warby Parker launched their “Pupils Project,” which is a program that works with local government agencies to provide free vision screenings, eye exams and glasses to school children in New York City and Baltimore.

FIGS

Founded in 2013 by Heather Hasson and Trina Spear, FIGS is an online retailer that sells medical apparel and accessories to medical professionals, such as doctors, nurses and physician assistants. FIGS primarily sells scrubs, which they also donate to healthcare professionals all over the world. As of 2019, the company has donated over 500,000 pairs of scrubs in 35 different countries.

Love Your Melon

Love Your Melon is a unique social entrepreneurship example because it initially launched as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization in 2012, but transitioned to a for-profit company in 2016. Love Your Melon was founded by Zach Quinn and Brian Keller with the goal of bringing awareness to childhood cancers and to “improve the quality of life for children battling cancer.”

The founders were inspired by TOMS and followed the one-for-one social entrepreneurship model in which one beanie was donated to a child battling cancer for every beanie sold. Today, 50% of the company’s net profits are donated to charitable causes to fight pediatric cancer.

Lush

Lush is a cosmetics retailer founded in 1995 that sells soaps, shampoos, creams, shower gels, lotions and other cosmetics from vegetarian and vegan recipes. The company supports animal rights causes in a variety of different ways, such as purchasing products from other companies that do not conduct, fund or commission products that have been tested on animals.

All of Lush’s products are tested on human volunteers before they are released to the public. Since 2007, Lush has conducted their “Charity Pot” campaign in which 100% of the profits of Charity Pot products are donated to small organizations that focus on animal welfare, human rights and environmental conservation efforts.

What are the 4 Types of Social Entrepreneur?

When it comes to driving change through social entrepreneurship, there are many definitions. These individuals and companies represent a vast cross-section of what they are trying to accomplish with their businesses. They also differ in terms of their strategies and goals for bringing about social change.

Dr. Joe Johnson is an entrepreneur who has studied the field for over 25 years. He is the founder of Welfont, which has funded and launched over a dozen start-ups. Dr. Johnson has outlined what he considers to be the four most common types of social entrepreneurs.

1. The Community Social Entrepreneur

This entrepreneur seeks to serve the social needs of a community within a small geographical area. These entrepreneurial initiatives could be anything from creating job opportunities for marginalized members to building a community center. Social entrepreneurs on this scale are usually individuals or small organizations. Microfinance loans are one example – offering financial solutions to local people with no access to banking.

These entrepreneurs work directly with members of the community. This means more vested interests and a slower decision process, but it comes with the advantage of long-term solutions. Both community members and local organizations are likely to sustainably carry on with the project even without the entrepreneur’s direct involvement.

This is where most people start, as a change in your own community is instantly visible. You can see the results of such social entrepreneurship almost immediately and talk to people you are helping directly. All you need to do to start this type of endeavor is find a local isolated social problem and apply yourself to solving it.

2. The Non-Profit Social Entrepreneur

These entrepreneurs are focused on social, not material gain, meaning they prioritize social well-being over traditional business needs. They reinvest any profits into the business to facilitate the further expansion of services

Non-profit social entrepreneurs are usually companies and organizations that choose to use their power for social good. The story of Goodwill Industries serves as a great example: In 1902, the company started employing poor residents to work with donated goods, reinvesting all profits into job training programs.

These entrepreneurs are usually more likely to meet their stated goals due to readily available funding. However, they are also dependent on its successful generation for social good.

This path is usually taken by more business-savvy entrepreneurs who want to use their skills for creating change. While the results often take longer to manifest, they can take effect on a larger scale. Joining a local non-profit or training program is usually a reliable way to start.

3. The Transformational Social Entrepreneur

These people are focused on creating a business that can meet the social needs that governments and other businesses aren’t currently meeting. The transformational category is often what non-profits evolve to with sufficient time and growth. They become larger organizations with rules and regulations – sometimes growing to the point of working with or getting integrated into governmental bodies. 

Accelerators like The Social Innovation Warehouse are great examples of this social entrepreneur type. They specifically empower other impact-driven entrepreneurs to create positive change. This then creates a system of interconnected businesses focused on social benefits.

Transformational entrepreneurs have an easier time getting top talent for these efforts. However, they are also bound by a web of rules and regulations that larger organizations have to create.

Such organizations usually recruit and foster talent in-house. If you apply for a job opportunity or volunteer position and show social entrepreneurship skills, they are likely to help you enroll in a mentorship program and facilitate your growth from there.

4. The Global Social Entrepreneur

These entrepreneurs seek to completely change social systems in order to meet major social needs globally. It’s often where big companies end up when they realize their social responsibility and begin concentrating on positive change as opposed to just profits. It’s also where the largest charity organizations, such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, stand.

The global need in question can be anything from free access to education to clean water. This is usually a lofty goal that spans continents and links many organizations and interests together. However, the trade-off is in scrutiny – if global social entrepreneurs fail to meet the needs and gather sufficient support, their failure has a bigger impact than those of smaller organizations.

These organizations are usually tied to a particular cause and work with other social entrepreneurs to make it happen. As such, you are more likely to achieve these heights if you connect with other social entrepreneurs and build a global community around solving social issues.

Additionally, there is a growing number of organizations that blend the best for-profit practices with non-profit missions. They fall under all types outlined above, being in different stages of growth and scalability. We suggest finding a cause that works best for you and charting a way forward from there.

What are the 5 Characteristics of Social Entrepreneurship?

Social entrepreneurs are found around the world and in every industry — but the characteristics that make them successful are similar no matter their location or innovation.

Here are five common characteristics of social entrepreneurs. How many do you possess?

Community Driven

Successful social entrepreneurs are passionate leaders of change. They are not satisfied by the status quo and do not believe that the way things have always been done is the way things should remain. A desire to improve the lives of their peers and their community is a characteristic that encourages social entrepreneurs to continue their work.

The definition of a community is broad. Community impact can mean coming up with a simple solution for a problem in your district, city, or country. And with the world becoming more connected by technology, the entire globe can be your community, too!

Creative and Innovative

Social entrepreneurs look at situations differently than the average person.

Where some people might think of problems as something that cannot be solved, social entrepreneurs see problems as an opportunity to get creative. They take that problem and innovate in order to come up with a new product, service, or approach to overcoming the obstacle.

Social entrepreneurship is what happens when the creative and the practical become one.

Business Savvy

This may seem like a less exciting characteristic, but it is an important one.

A successful social entrepreneur does not just have a good idea — they also have the practical business knowledge to turn that idea into a reality. A social entrepreneur’s solution considers market demand and research, finances, resources, and the restrictions and opportunities in their community and country.

Successful social entrepreneurs also know the importance of data, and gather it at every step of the way, constantly monitoring their impact and looking for ways to improve.

They Know How to Network

Social entrepreneurs know they are not alone when creating their innovation. The success of projects depends not just on a single strong leader, but the team working with that innovator.

That can involve collaborating with other youth, finding a mentor, or knowing how to talk about an idea with community leaders, local governments, and microfinance institutions. Social entrepreneurs are often global citizens who connect with other aspiring and accomplished social entrepreneurs to share and improve their solutions.

Determination

Determination is needed for entrepreneurs and social entrepreneurs alike.

Social entrepreneurship is about taking smart risks — and sometimes facing failure as a result. But successful social entrepreneurs know that failure is a necessary step in success. Rather than giving up, social entrepreneurs look critically at their projects or business and accept feedback, changing it to become better.

Determination is also needed when meeting other challenges, including bureaucracy, lack of capital, and the absence of community or family support.

What are the Types of Social Enterprise?

The category of social enterprise includes several different types of businesses and organizations. In this step, we provide definitions and examples of these different types.

Credit union

Finance cooperative that helps people save and borrow money. They also provide access ot community finance initiatives

CO-OP Financial Services, formerly known as CO-OP Network, is an interbank network connecting the ATMs in the United States, with additional locations in Canada and certain US Navy bases overseas. It is the largest owned interbank network in the United States.

Community-based organization

An organization with a strong geographical definition and focus on local markets and services. Community-based organizations are organizations with earned-income activities which are set up, owned and controlled by the local community and which aim to be a focus for local development. Their ultimate goal is to create self-supporting jobs for local people.

“The Recycled Orchestra” is a project developed in one of the poorest slums in Latin America, Cautera (Asuncion, Paraguay). Their aim is to develop the area and provide opportunities for the local community. Since the creation of the project they have set up a music school and a youth orchestra that performs internationally.

Non-Governmental Organizations with commercial arms

A non-profit organization that does not rely on grants and donations, but instead earns income through selling goods and services.

BRAC is an international organization based in Bangladesh that works with isolated people in poverty by finding practical ways to increase their access to resources, support their entrepreneurship and empower them to become agents of change.

Social firm

A business set up to create employment for those most severely disadvantaged in the labor market.

Fifteen is the name of several restaurants founded in 2004 by Jamie Oliver, a well-known British chef. These restaurants employ disadvantaged youth, including those with drug or alcohol problems, the unemployed and the homeless, ultimately training them to become chefs.

Cooperative

An association of people united to meet common economic and social needs through jointly owned enterprises. Cooperatives are organized by and for their members, who come together to provide a shared service from which they all benefit.

The Seikatsu Consumers’ Club Co-op (SC) is a Japanese organization formed in 1965 with headquarters in Tokyo. The organization is owned by the members (around 307,000), most of them women, and is concerned with food safety. It buys organic food and shuns genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and produces its own milk and biodegradable soap.

Fairtrade

An organized social movement that aims to help producers in developing countries achieve better trading conditions and promote sustainability. It advocates for higher prices for exporters as well as higher social and environmental standards.

Divine Chocolate is an organization established in the UK in 1998 as a company limited by shares owned by the Kuapa kokoo cocoa farmers’ co-operative, the Fairtrade NGO Twin Trading and the Body Shop. Their aim is to continue to deliver delicious chocolate and a social business model supporting local cocoa farmers.

Microfinance

A form of financial services for entrepreneurs and small businesses that lack access to banking and related services. The two main mechanisms for the delivery of financial services to such clients are: 1) relationship-based banking for individual entrepreneurs and small businesses; and 2) group-based models, where several entrepreneurs come together to apply for loans and other services as a group.

Mibanco is a Peruvian bank that was born out of necessity to provide finance to SMEs. It was founded in 1998 in Lima on behalf of an NGO, Acción Comunitaria del Peru.

What are the Benefits of Social Entrepreneurship?

Business leaders are increasingly realizing the power of sustainable business strategies to not just address community and global issues but to drive business success.

Contrary to popular belief, there does not have to be a trade-off between making a social impact and bottom-line profits and investment returns. In fact, making a profit is core to being able to sustain the social impact goals that the business sets out to achieve.

There are a number of key business advantages of being a social enterprise as summarized below:

1. Stronger Customer and Client Relationships
Customers are increasingly holding businesses accountable for the impact of their core operations and look to buy from brands that are driving social and environmental change. This is also true for B2B relations where a shared vision around social and environmental goals is becoming more important.

2. Greater Employee Motivation and Retention
Current and prospective employees are actively seeking out companies to work with who are like-minded when it comes to social enterprise. Employees are not just happy to know that the company they work for has shared social and environmental values, they are wanting to be an active part of that change in terms of planning and contributing to community activities and fundraising.

3. Increased Creativity
When you demonstrate your company’s values and passion through a social enterprise ethos, employees will feel encouraged (and supported) to develop new and better ways to do their jobs. The outcome being that employees feel empowered to start contributing to the bigger picture.

4. Increased Productivity
It goes without saying that a more motivated and creative workforce will ultimately lead to great productivity and in turn improved profits for the business. A win-win in terms of business outcomes as well as social and environmental outcomes.

5. Enhance Brand Awareness and Reputation
In today’s digital era, social enterprises are gaining exposure – and praise – for their social goals. Customers, employees and stakeholders feel good when they are connected with companies that are helping their community or the world at large. They will share their stories (good and bad) through their own social channels while at the same time, telling your story through social media can help you gain awareness and build your reputation.

Increasingly, investors, business partners, customers, and employees want to know that the companies they choose are doing more than just providing a product or service. They look for companies that are doing good and will feel a special connection to those whose values align with their own.

What is the Main Goal of a Social Entrepreneur?

The main goal of a social entrepreneur is not to earn a profit. Rather, a social entrepreneur seeks to implement widespread improvements in society. However, a social entrepreneur must still be financially savvy to succeed in his or her cause.

Social enterprises can be both non-profit or for-profit organizations and may take the forms of many different types of organizations. What is common in all social enterprises is the fact that they usually adopt two main goals – the first is to generate profits, while the second is to reach the social, cultural, economic, or environmental outcomes outlined in the company’s mission.

It is important to note that social enterprises operate under the structure of a traditional business, and on the surface, they may seem to look, feel, and operate like any other traditional business. However, the key to understanding a social enterprise is to understand its mission, which outlines its key social objectives.

Profit generation is still extremely important to social enterprises, as earnings are important to sustain the livelihood of the venture but the important difference is that instead of using its profit to distribute among shareholders, the profits are used to reinvest in the enterprise to help it achieve its social mission.

What are the 6 Areas for Social Entrepreneurs?

The steps that we know will lead to success are:

1. Find your passion

Social entrepreneurs believe and trust that a first step can lead to change. Ventures are started because people believe in something: making a change and having an impact, helping others, building something that was missing, and conducting business in a manner they believe in. Impactful social entrepreneurs and change-makers are those with a story to tell – and did you notice, that story always starts with a why?

To find your passion, ask yourself:

What about the status quo are you not satisfied with?

What bothers you?

What is important to you?

What lights you up more than anything else?

What values guide you?

2. Build a team culture

We know that culture beats strategy hands down. Any movement starts with your first follower. Your first follower will show everyone else how to follow; your first follower will be in their own way a leader. Leadership is over-glorified, it is the first follower that turns the lone nut into a leader. Embrace your first follower as an equal. Let them know that now it’s not about them anymore, but about you as a team.

When you build your team, give them room to breathe. Let them take responsibility and trust them because you are aligned to the same vision. Your team will feel empowered and help you fulfil your mission. Your role is to set the structure to help your team culture thrive; to empower your team, to empower ideas, to show drive and inspire, to show that mission comes first.

3. Get started

Think about what you can do now – today. Don’t worry about the big picture. Think small, then dream big. Your mentality should be about changing one person at a time. To find a solution for that small problem, explore what is available in the world to learn rather than reinventing the wheel. Tailor whatever you find to fit your culture. Develop, refine and reiterate the model or solution until you get the simplest most empirical formula.

4. Keep at it (how to stay motivated and persevere in difficult times)

Being entrepreneurial is hard work. You know that and we know that. Being able to stay motivated and believe in yourself, your idea and the people around you is key. Entrepreneurs know the statistics of start-up failure but are optimists and tend to believe in their own chances of success.

To sustain this confidence, learn where your motivation comes from, reflect on failures and successes to draw conclusions – and have them handy when you need a pick-me-up! Surround yourself with people who belief in you and can help you to pick you up when motivation runs low. Reflect with those who have walked the walk before you – mentors, those who inspire you, and want you to take action.

Research shows that entrepreneurs interpret setbacks differently by phrasing them as only temporary. Individuals with a predisposition for optimism remain calmer and more optimistic in high-stress conditions, which leads to persistence. Learn from mistakes. Prepare for failure.

A brain that doesn’t expect good results lacks a signal telling it ‘take notice — wrong answer’: these brains will fail to learn from their mistakes and are less likely to improve over time. Build social networks. Social networks increase optimism because greater social resources heighten positive expectations.

Lastly, optimism can become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Optimists perceive their partners as providing more support, which leads them to invest more effort in maintaining the relationship. The increased effort then leads to more satisfaction with the relationship for both partners.

5. Fund your venture and grow organically

Working with grassroots organizers means everyone is invested and ready to chip in. We know that the key is to think small and local. Focus your social enterprise on what’s easy and doable, because if you can’t make it work at this level, it won’t work at the larger level.

Once you know that your solution works:

Brainstorm with your community how to sustain your solution. This creates ownership and agency. Involve your community to first identify your objective and then what is needed to reach that objective.

Have the people who came up with the strategy test it to see if it works and what can be learned from this particular approach.

Growth and funding take very strange forms. Look for signs of growth in unexpected places and remember growth takes time. Change takes time if it is real. Be patient and persistent and most importantly, you have to believe in your solution. You have to believe that your solution is the best. At the same time, you must be open to critique and suggestions.

6. Scale up

Scaling will happen naturally if you have built your social enterprise right from the start. The idea is to find solutions that are built on shared values among human beings. Those shared values will be the catalyst for scaling to become a social movement of change.

Who are the Most Successful Social Entrepreneurs?

Nonprofits and for-profit businesses can team up to form a hybrid business model, led by a new generation of social entrepreneurs. These leaders successfully tackle social issues while generating profit for shareholders.

Widespread use of ethical practices such as impact investing, conscious consumerism, and corporate social responsibility programs facilitated the success of the following 10 social entrepreneurs.

1. Bill Drayton

Bill Drayton is recognized as one of the pioneering social entrepreneurs of our time. Drayton founded Ashoka: Innovators for the Public in 1980, which takes a multifaceted approach to find and supporting social entrepreneurs globally. Drayton also serves as chair of the board for Get America Working! and Youth Venture.

2. Rachel Brathen

“Yoga Girl” is the name of Rachel Brathen’s New York Times best-selling book and the handle for her Instagram account, which reaches 2 million followers. In addition to showing her audience fresh yoga poses and tips, Rachel hopes to connect teachers with people in the online community who need healing. “What if social media could become a social mission?” asks Brathen. Her online channel oneoeight.tv was an “online studio” that offered health, yoga, and meditation services.

3. Shiza Shahid

As co-founder and global ambassador of the Malala Fund, Shiza Shahid, manages business operations for Malala Yousafzai, the teenager who became the youngest winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014. Like Malala, Shahid was born in Pakistan. She initially reached out to Malala in 2009 and worked to organize a camp for her and other Pakistani girls.

In 2012, Shiza flew to Malala’s bedside after she was targeted and shot by the Taliban for promoting education for girls. Inspired by Malala’s desire to continue campaigning for gender equality and education, Shahid decided to help Malala strategize her campaign. Shahid created the Malala Fund, which helps empower women and girls by advocating and spreading access to education.

4. Blake Mycoskie

After a trip to Argentina in 2006, Mycoskie became the chief shoe giver and founder of TOMS Shoes, using some of his own money to launch the company. TOMS pledged to donate one pair of shoes for every one sold, and now expands the “One-For-One” campaign to support water, sight, birth, and anti-bullying initiatives. Through the TOMS brand, Mycoskie has raised awareness about issues like global poverty and health.

As of 2022, the organization had provided people in developing countries with 75 million pairs of shoes and more than 450,000 weeks of safe water. Moreover, the TOMS Eyewear program has helped to restore sight in more than 780,000 individuals by giving recipients prescriptive glasses or surgery.

5. Scott Harrison

Scott Harrison left a life of luxury in New York City and headed for the shores of West Africa to volunteer with a hospital ship charity named Mercy Ships. The trip was a watershed moment, and in 2006 Harrison founded charity: water, a nonprofit that provides safe and potable drinking water in 29 countries around the world. As of 2020, the organization had fulfilled 91,414 projects in developing countries. In 2020 alone, charity: water raised $55.4 million.

6. Muhammad Yunus

Professor Muhammad Yunus is renowned for the popularization of microfinance and microcredit, which serve as the cornerstones of the Grameen Bank, founded in 1983. In 2006, Yunus was awarded the Nobel Prize for creating the Grameen Bank, which is based on the principles of trust and solidarity to empower villagers with the funding to pull themselves out of poverty.

According to the Grameen Bank, as of May 2022, 90% of its about 9 million borrowers are women, who pay their loans back at a rate of 97%—a recovery rate higher than any traditional banking system. This renowned professor has received international awards like the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009, the Congressional Gold Medal in 2010, and the Olympic Laurel in 2021.

7. Jeffrey Hollender

Jeffrey Hollender is well known as the former chief executive officer (CEO) and co-founder of Seventh Generation, a popular business for natural products. He is now a leading consultant, speaker, and activist for corporate social responsibility. He has written seven books including “How to Make the World a Better Place.” Hollender is co-founder and CEO of Hollender Sustainable Brands, which sells sustainable products for sexual and personal health—such as condoms, tampons, lubricants, pads, and the like.

Hollender is an adjunct professor at New York University and co-founder and board chair of the American Sustainable Business Council; and a board member of various other organizations, including Greenpeace USA, Health Care Without Harm, and workers’ rights organization Verité.

8. Xavier Helgesen, Christopher “Kreece” Fuchs, and Jeff Kurtzman

These three co-founders of Better World Books—a B-Corp online bookstore that funds global literacy—all deserve recognition as successful social entrepreneurs. The founders met at Notre Dame University, where they tutored the football team and started collecting unwanted books to sell on the internet.

Helgesen is CEO and co-founder of ZOLA Electric, formerly Off Grid Electric, which provides renewable energy to homes in the “off-grid world.” Kurtzman previously held the CEO position at Aid Through Trade, a company that distributes handmade accessories from Nepal around the U.S., where he was responsible for a 125% growth in sales. He also co-founded the nonprofit Operation Incubation, which delivers low-cost, low-maintenance incubators to the developing world.

9. Marc Koska

Marc Koska re-designed medical tools, introducing a non-reusable, inexpensive syringe to be used in under-funded clinics. This innovation safeguards against the transmission of blood-borne diseases. Koska founded the SafePoint Trust in 2006, which delivered 4 billion safe injections in 40 countries via his “auto-disable” syringes. The Schwab Foundation Social Entrepreneurs of the Year in 2015 cited Koska for his pioneering solution to a world health issue. The World Health Organization (WHO) announced a global policy on safe injections in February of 2015.

10. Sanjit “Bunker” Roy

Sanjit “Bunker” Roy had a privileged upbringing in India, in contrast to many Indians who live off of less than $1 per day. When Roy visited some of his country’s rural villages, he had a life-altering experience and decided to find a way to improve the social-economic inequities in his country. He founded Barefoot College in 1972, a solar-powered college for the poor. Roy describes Barefoot College as “the only college where the teacher is the learner and the learner is the teacher.”

What are the 4 Main Elements of Entrepreneurship?

After having studied the concept of entrepreneurship, now let us look at some key elements that are necessary for entrepreneurship. We will be looking at four of the most important elements.

Innovation

An entrepreneur is the key source of innovation and variation in an economy. It is actually one of the most important tools of an entrepreneur’s success. They use innovation to exploit opportunities available in the market and overcome any threats.

Read Also: Causes of Low Employee Retention Rate

So this innovation can be a new product, service, technology, production technique, marketing strategy, etc. Or innovation can involve doing something better and more economically. Either way in the concept of entrepreneurship, it is a key factor.

Risk-Taking

Entrepreneurship and risk-taking go hand in hand. One of the most important features of entrepreneurship is that the whole business is run and managed by one person. So there is no one to share the risks with.

Not taking any risks can stagnate a business and excessive impulsive risk-taking can cause losses. So a good entrepreneur knows how to take and manage the risks of his business. But the willingness of an entrepreneur to take risks gives them a competitive edge in the economy. It helps them exploit the opportunities the economy provides.

Vision

Vision or foresight is one of the main driving forces behind any entrepreneur. It is the energy that drives the business forward by using the foresight of the entrepreneur. It is what gives the business an outline for the future – the tasks to complete, the risks to take, the culture to establish, etc.

All great entrepreneurs of the world that started with an entrepreneurship business are known to have great vision. This helps them set out short-term and long-term goals for their business and also plan ways to achieve these objectives.

Organization

In entrepreneurship, it is essentially a one-man show. The entrepreneur bears all the risks and enjoys all the rewards. And sure he has the help of employees and middle-level management, yet he must be the one in ultimate control. This requires a lot of organization and impeccable organizational skills.

An entrepreneur must be able to manage and organize his finances, his employees, his resources, etc. So his organizational abilities are one of the most important elements of entrepreneurship.