RESOURCES

A Sampler Of Books About Social Entrepreneurship And Social Entrepreneurs

Social Entrepreneurship: What Everyone Needs to Know, David Bornstein and Susan DavisSocial Entrepreneurship: What Everyone Needs to Know, David Bornstein and Susan Davis
Bornstein and Davis explain what social entrepreneurs are, how their organizations function, and what challenges they face. The book will give readers an understanding of what differentiates social entrepreneurship from standard business ventures and how it differs from traditional grant-based non-profit work. Unlike the typical top-down, model-based approach to solving problems employed by the World Bank and other large institutions, social entrepreneurs work through a process of iterative learning--learning by doing--working with communities to find unique, local solutions to unique, local problems. Most importantly, the book shows readers exactly how they can get involved.

How to Change the World: Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Ideas, David BornsteinHow to Change the World: Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Ideas, David Bornstein
Published in over twenty countries, How to Change the World has become the Bible for social entrepreneurship. It profiles men and women from around the world who have found innovative solutions to a wide variety of social and economic problems. Whether they work to deliver solar energy to Brazilian villagers, or improve access to college in the United States, social entrepreneurs offer pioneering solutions that change lives.

The Price of a Dream: The Story of the Grameen Bank, David BornsteinThe Price of a Dream: The Story of the Grameen Bank, David Bornstein
This book is the compelling story of the Grameen Bank, one of the most successful development organizations in the world. Founded by Muhammad Yunus in Bangladesh in 1976, the Grameen Bank has extended small loans for self-employment to more than two million women villagers and has helped lift hundreds of thousands out of poverty. The Grameen Bank's "trickle up" approach has inspired the creation of hundreds of "micro-credit" programs around the world and helped to reshape international development policy.

The Power of Unreasonable People: How Social Entrepreneurs Create Markets That Change the World, John Elkington and Pamela HartiganThe Power of Unreasonable People: How Social Entrepreneurs Create Markets That Change the World, John Elkington and Pamela Hartigan
In this what's-next business manifesto, "social entrepreneurs" Elkington and Hartigan run with a quote from playwright George Bernard Shaw: "The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man." Using that thesis, the authors argue that the best place to find tomorrow's revolutionary business models is on the unpredictable fringes of the mainstream market. There, they find cases like Jack Sim and his Singapore-based World Toilet Organization, who have ingeniously improved living conditions worldwide (and goosed profits) by, among other schemes, convincing governments and corporations to compete for cleanest public restroom honors. The heart of the book are the case studies, of both for-profit and nonprofit social organizations (many of them in Asian and Indian countries), which are mined for ideas and theories regarding their impact on global markets and local communities. Elkington (The Chrysalis Economy) and Hartigan also give nods to such well-known enterprises as Whole Foods, One Laptop Per Child, and Band Aid, Live Aid and Live 8. Written with a business-magazine style, Elkington and Hartigan's eye-opening work and noble intent-bridging business acumen and social awareness-make a convincing case for unconventional entrepreneurship.

Giving: How Each of Us Can Change the World, Bill ClintonGiving: How Each of Us Can Change the World, Bill Clinton
Here, from Bill Clinton, is a call to action. Giving is an inspiring look at how each of us can change the world. First, it reveals the extraordinary and innovative efforts now being made by companies and organizations—and by individuals—to solve problems and save lives both “down the street and around the world.” Then it urges us to seek out what each of us, “regardless of income, available time, age, and skills,” can do to help, to give people a chance to live out their dreams. Bill Clinton shares his own experiences and those of other givers, representing a global flood tide of nongovernmental, nonprofit activity. These remarkable stories demonstrate that gifts of time, skills, things, and ideas are as important and effective as contributions of money. From Bill and Melinda Gates to a six-year-old California girl named McKenzie Steiner, who organized and supervised drives to clean up the beach in her community, Clinton introduces us to both well-known and unknown heroes of giving.

Other Helpful Books

  • No More Prisons: Billy Upski Wimsatt
  • The Green Collar Economy: Van Jones
  • The Power of Social Innovation: Stephen Goldsmith
  • Switch: Chip and Dan Heath
  • Life Entrepreneurs: Chris Gergen
  • Begging for Change: Robert Egger
  • Forces For Good: Leslie Crutchfield and Heather McCloud Grant
  • Deep Economy: Bill McKibben
  • Local Economy: Lyle Estill
  • Small Mart Revolution: Michael Shuman

A Sampler of Articles

A Sampler Of Organizations And Funds That Back Social Entrepreneurs

Echoing Green
http://www.echoinggreen.org/
Provides fellowships to social entrepreneurs who are creating their own public service organizations or independent projects.

Acumen Fund
www.acumenfund.org/
Acumen is a nonprofit fund thatprovides debt and equity investments to ventures fighting poverty in developing countries. Founded in 2001, the New York-based fund has committed more than $34 million across portfolios addressing water, health, housing, and energy issues.

Commons Capital
www.commonscapital.com/
An early-stage venture firm, Commons Capital seeks socially and environmentally driven companies in the health-care, education, environment, and energy sectors. Commons was founded in 2002 in Brookline, Mass.

Community Development Venture Capital Alliance
www.cdvca.org/
Formed in 1993, the Community Development Venture Capital Alliance is a network of venture funds that invest in companies in low-income and distressed communities in the U.S. and abroad. They focus on creating good jobs and improving communities. The alliance, which is a nonprofit, also has its own investment fund.

Investors' Circle
www.investorscircle.net/
Investors' Circle is a network of angels, VCs, and foundations devoted to funding social enterprises. The group has helped direct more than $130 million in investments to 200 companies since 1992. Investors' Circle also aims to widen the network of patient capital investors.

Good Capital
www.goodcap.net/
San Francisco-based Good Capital, founded in 2006, provides growth-stage capital for social ventures. Good Capital funds both businesses and nonprofit social enterprises.

Social Investment Forum
www.socialinvest.org/
Mostly focused on socially responsible investing in the public markets, the Social Investment Forum also has resources on community investing.

SJF Ventures
www.sjfventures.com/
Originally established as a "sustainable jobs fund" in 1999, SJF focuses on expansion funding for companies in clean technology, technology services, and premium consumer products that have positive impacts. The fund has an affiliated nonprofit, SJF Advisory Services, to assist portfolio companies and other socially driven entrepreneurs.

TBL Capital
www.tblcapital.com/
TBL Capital, which stands for triple bottom line, seeks to fund growth-stage companies across sectors whose mission benefits "people, planet, and profits." The $50 million fund, based in Sausalito, Calif., has a portfolio of seven companies so far, including organic consumer products, solar energy, and green design.

Ashoka
http://www.ashoka.org/
Ashoka is the global association of the world’s leading social entrepreneurs—men and women with system changing solutions for the world’s most urgent social problems.

Global Social Benefit Incubator
http://www.scu.edu/sts/gsbi/
The Global Social Benefit Incubator (GSBI™) works with social entrepreneurs to empower them and their organizations and to overcome barriers to scale and impact.

Good Capital
www.goodcap.net/
Good Capital is an investment firm that increases the flow of capital to innovative ventures creating market-based solutions to inequality and poverty.

New Profit
www.newprofit.com
New Profit provides support to innovative social entrepreneurs and their organizations, and pursue a set of social innovation strategies to improve the environment in which all social entrepreneurs operate.

Nonprofit Finance Fund
http://www.nonprofitfinancefund.org/
Nonprofit Finance Fund (NFF) connects money to mission success through innovative practice, consulting and direct investment in social sector organizations.

RSF Social Finance
http://rsfsocialfinance.org
RSF is a pioneering nonprofit financial services organization dedicated to using the tools of business to bring about positive, real-world change.

Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship
http://www.schwabfound.org
The Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship is a not-for-profit, independent and neutral organization, founded in 1998, with the purpose to advance social entrepreneurship and to foster social entrepreneurs as an important catalyst for societal innovation and progress.

Skoll Foundation
www.skollfoundation.org
The Skoll Foundation advances systemic change to benefit communities around the world by investing in, connecting, and celebrating social entrepreneurs.

Social Edge
www.socialedge.org
Social Edge is the global online community where social entrepreneurs and other practitioners of the social benefit sector connect to network, learn, inspire and share resources.

Social Enterprise Alliance
www.se-alliance.org
Membership organization providing resources, education, technical assistance, and networking opportunities to those in the field.

Social Venture Network
www.svn.org
Membership organization working to enable a global community of entrepreneurs and investors to build a more sustainable world through business.

Additional Venture Funds

Websites And Additional Resources

There is no single right way to live. To figure out what way is best for you – what values work best for you – you need to test these different ways in the laboratory of living. While eventually you need to be judgmental in choosing what works for you, you should start with openness to all points of view. If you do this, you will probably decide that the best way to live is to aspire to virtues such as honesty, caring for others, fairness and good citizenship. And hopefully you will also aspire to pursue the highest standard of excellence in whatever practices you engage in. You will have arrived when you prefer to find the truth rather than win the argument. And you will love wisdom - not power or fame or possessions.

-David D’Appolonia

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