Social Entrepreneurship | Fraser Nelson

Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year is the world’s most prestigious business award for entrepreneurs. The unique award makes a difference through the way it encourages entrepreneurial activity among those with potential, and recognizes the contribution of people who inspire others with their vision, leadership and achievement. As the first and only truly global award of its kind,

Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year celebrates those who are building and leading successful, growing and dynamic businesses, recognizing them through regional, national and global awards programs in more than 135 cities in 50 countries.

This year Utah’s competition will for the first time include a track specific to the achievements of our state’s social entrepreneurs. Organizations and individuals that have developed innovative ways to solve complex social problems, had deep impact on their missions, and which create significant social value are invited to apply.

The application process is highly competitive and rigorous. Applications are due March 16, and the awards ceremony, attended by 1,200 of the state’s leading business people, will be held Friday June 12.

If you are interested in the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award, please contact Fraser Nelson at the Community Foundation of Utah for details. She can be reached at 801.918.4216 or at fraser@utahcf.org.Utahs Own Social Entrepreneurship Cmpetition!

This year Utah's competition will for the first time include a track specific to the achievements of our state's social entrepreneurs. Organizations and individuals that have developed innovative ways to solve complex social problems, had deep impact on their missions, and which create significant social value are invited to apply.

The new Community Foundaiton of Utah is a sponsor.

The application process is highly competitive and rigorous. Applications are due March 16, and the awards ceremony, attended by 1,200 of the state's leading business people, will be held Friday June 12.

Emerging ideas

Lots of folks think they can start their own businesses, a new survey from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation finds. According to the survey (1 page, PDF), 40 percent of youth between the ages of 8 and 21 would like to start a business in the future, while 37 percent were unsure about it but had not closed the door to the possibility. In addition, 63 percent of survey respondents said that through hard work they have the ability to start their own business, while 26 percent agreed that starting a business was more desirable than other career opportunities they might have. The main reasons respondents said they were interested in becoming entrepreneurs include the desire to use their skills and abilities, build something for the future, be their own boss, see their ideas realized, and earn money.

Intellectual risk

Another supportive voice! A new book by Susan Raymond (with onPhilanthropy) called Mapping the New World of American Philanthropy encourages every foundation to adjust its portfolio to devote 10 percent of its resources to "intellectual risk," or the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake. Raymond warns that the drive for results “ threatens to make philanthropy risk averse and mechanical, with philanthropy officials resembling mortgage lenders assessing whether to provide a loan.” Social entrepreneurs know that not all the investments made pan out, and that risk is a part of the entrepreneurial world. So right on!

Resources

In the past decade the term ‘social entrepreneurship” has taken on many meanings and has been adopted by many types of organizations. From changing the way impoverished people get loans, to developing revenue streams for nonprofit organizations, to a new term for innovative thinkers in the sector, social entrepreneurship is fast becoming the catch all buzz word for ‘doing good in a new way”. And yet there are few widely known examples of what academics argue is real entrepreneurship – systems changing innovations – in Utah’s nonprofit sector. Or are there?

Organizations

University Network for Social Entrepreneurship aims to develop social entrepreneurship as a vocation and a field of intellectual endeavor, and carry social entrepreneurial principles into other disciplines and sectors. It is designed to be a resource clearinghouse and an action-oriented discussion forum, which enables the expansion of social entrepreneurship education and participation around the world. Through support of nascent and current social entrepreneurship educators, and close engagement with social entrepreneurs themselves, the network also dramatically increases the number of students exposed to social entrepreneurship principles and opportunities.

Ashoka was founded in 1980 to introduce the world to social entrepreneurship. In societies beset with poverty and prejudice and lost opportunity, the social entrepreneur belongs to a small class of gifted people whose clear vision and deliberate action create measurable improvements to the quality of life for large numbers of people and alter society as a whole. Operating within Ashoka, the Global Academy’s mission is to identify, support, connect and leverage global social entrepreneurs – individual innovators who are enabling millions to change their lives, moving the scope of change from local to global. The aims of the Academy are to demonstrate and define how the social sector can address global problems, on a global scale, encourage collaborations between the world's leading business and social entrepreneurs, helping to draw the two sectors closer together and to build a community of global leaders that provides conceptual and representational leadership for the field of social entrepreneurship.

The Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship was launched in 2003 at the Saïd Business School, Oxford University, to promote the advancement of social entrepreneurship worldwide. In addition to developing an innovative teaching program, the Skoll Centre engages in a range of research activities, both discrete and collaborative. The aim is to produce work that engages with theory that is also valuable to practitioners in the field, so that the Centre is a useful knowledge resource for social entrepreneurs.

The Social Enterprise Knowledge Network, a collaboration formed to address the need for generating social enterprise intellectual capital developed in the region itself, came about in the year 2001 through the participation of a group of leading Latin American business schools and the Harvard Business School in partnership with the AVINA Foundation.

Business Schools

This is just a smattering of the interest in social entrepreneurship at the nation's leading business schools.

Duke: "A research and education center based at Duke University's Fuqua School of Business, the Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship (CASE) promotes the entrepreneurial pursuit of social impact through the thoughtful adaptation of business expertise."

Columbia: "All Columbia Business School graduates will be called upon to contribute to society at some point during their lives. The purpose of the Social Enterprise Program is to prepare future and current leaders for that opportunity to add value beyond the bottom line."

NYU: "The Satter Program is dedicated to making the social entrepreneurship movement a leading force for social improvement by generating interest and expertise in the field among members of the Stern community."

Publications

Stanford Social Innovation Review: This quarterly journal from the Center for Social Innovation at the Stanford Graduate School of Business often features interviews with social entrepreneurs, best practices in the sector and more ‘academic’ perspectives on this growing movement. www.srsrireview.org.

New Social Entrepreneurs – is published by the REDF (formerly the Roberts Foundation). The web site has lots of resources you can download.

Enterprising Nonprofits and Strategic Tools for Social Entrepreneurs are two classic books on the topic by - Dee, Emerson and Economy. Two thoer recommendations: Social Entrepreneurship by Brinkerhoff and How to Change the World: Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Ideas – by Bornstein.

Utah's Net Impact chapter

Net Impact is a global network of leaders who are changing the world through business. They have a new chapter in Utah! For more information about NetImpact in Salt Lake, log on to www.netimplactslc.com