If you’re interested here’s a short video of social entrepreneurs discussing and defining social entrepreneurship. It’s really inspirational to hear the perspective of someone who built something from nothing in attempt to make a difference in the world.

link to video: http://blog.prendismo.com/2009/07/shedding-light-on-social.html

The argument of reducing social entrepreneurship to ‘profitable’ enterprises is an old topic that has been thrashed out in extensive detail on several major social entrepreneurship sites worldwide.

Social entrepreneurship, I agree, has ‘sustainability’ at its core. That is irrefutable, and something that everyone agrees upon. However, to correlate sustainability to profitability? Well, that is something of a cause-effect paradox.

If we look at it this way, we will have to say that Bill Drayton is not a social entrepreneur. Jacqueline Novogratz is not a social entrepreneur. The enormous social impact that Ashoka, Acumen Fund, Kiva and similar organizations disqualify them from being social startups, just because they are non-profits? IMHO definitely not.

Social entrepreneurship is different from traditional entrepreneurship in the emphasis it lies on value generated to the community while being sustainable, not always ‘profitable’.

There are various non-profits with business models that are highly sustainable, AND scalable, while still maintaining a zero-profit balance sheet.

A good place to read more about such models would be the discussion boards at socialedge.org.