Is Social Entrepreneurship The Next Big Thing?

A key contribution to the social entrepreneurship movement is David Bornstein’s How to Change the World. Now, Bornstein has founded and launched a new website, www.dowser.org, which aims to showcase more stories of change happening around the world right now.

“A social entrepreneur is someone who recognizes a social problem and uses entrepreneurial principles to organize, create, and manage a venture to make social change.” Social enterprises, such as DDD, are also often described as not-for-profit businesses. They apply corporate principles, and often leverage any corporate network they may have access to, to create an enterprise with a double (or triple) bottom line.

Social enterprises are considered part of the third sector, or the civic sector, placed between the public and private sector. However, in developing countries where the public sector is sometimes non-existent or very weak, other agents of change like social enterprises often provide most of the social infrastructure a country needs in order to advance – even if they don’t have the legislative support to do so.

The realization that social entrepreneurship might be the key to the advancement of the developing world has only emerged in the past decade or so. A key contribution to the social entrepreneurship movement is David Bornstein’s How to Change the World, a book that turned a spotlight onto social innovation and examples of how the model could effect profound change. Now, Bornstein has founded and launched a new website, www.dowser.org, which aims to showcase more stories of change happening around the world right now.

Partly, Bornstein’s motivation is that while social entrepreneurship does yield social change around the world, the change is generally hidden. Moreover, he and his well-written team focus on solutions rather than problems; through a number of case studies, they are exploring who is solving what and how.

DDD is excited to be profiled on Dowser.org via an interview with our CEO, Jeremy Hockenstein. We look forward to following the Dowser.org team as they showcase more examples of positive change, and hope that their efforts will help pave the road for better conditions for social enterprises, in all corners of the world.

Consider making a donation today.