Social Enterprises: May 2008 Archives

More and more, we are seeing social entrepreneurs (in fact, you will see many of them on our sister site, Ideablob.com). 

To get some background on this trend, there's a good piece on HeraldNet.com. 

So, what is a social entrepreneur?  According to Ashoka (which is a global organization of about 2,000 social entrepreneurs): 

"individuals with innovative solutions to society's most pressing social problems. Rather than leaving societal needs to the government or business sectors, social entrepreneurs find what is not working and solve the problem by changing the system."

There's also a new book on the topic; that is, David Bornstein's How to Change the World: Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Ideas, Updated Edition.

To get more information, click here to check out the article in HeraldNet.com.

While at the Digital Hollywood conference, I had a chance to meet up with upstart company, SocialVibe.com.

Essentially, it's a combination of social media (especially Facebook and MySpace ) with consumer brands and causes. 

That is, you select a charity to support as well as a brand (some include Coca-Cola, NBA, Sprint and Nestlé).  The result is that you can earn points for charitable donations.

It's an interesting concept.  And so far, the site has raised about $30,000 for 14 charities like the World Wildlife Fund, PETA, charity:water, One Laptop Per Child, Surfrider Foundation, Direct Relief International, Partnership for a Drug-Free America, Invisible Children and Donors Choose.