Social Entrepreneurship Examples
The company has since expanded the one for one concept to eye wear, coffee, and tote bags. Grameen Bank: Founder Muhammad Yunus provides micro-loans to those in need to help them develop financial self-sufficiency. Yunus received a Nobel Prize for his work in 2006.
Elon Musk’s efforts are more directly social-entrepreneurial. He’s helping to move the entire world away from gas powered vehicles (Tesla/Solar City), reducing urban congestion and improving rural life (SpaceX/Starlink), and trying to back up civilization on other planetary bodies (SpaceX).
Understanding Social Entrepreneurs
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.
Social entrepreneurs must nurture a sense of curiosity about people and the problems they face. … Great social ventures often start through immersive market research, an empathy-centric process through which social entrepreneurs gain knowledge in the field.
In many cases, social entrepreneurs do make money. … Social entrepreneurs adopt a business model that puts their mission at the center of their business and are held accountable to their customers and stakeholders based on their proposed impact.
Ultimately, sustainability relates to 4 distinct areas: people, environment, economic resources, culture. These are the so-called “4 Pillars”. In order to be considered sustainable, business models must simultaneously address, handle and look after all these aspects.
Social entrepreneurs are individuals who try to tackle society’s most pressing problems and attempt to drive social innovation in fields such as healthcare, agriculture, education, environment and human rights, using new approaches and products and more rigorous applications of known technologies or strategies.