Our Top 25 Social Entrepreneurship websites
February 4, 2009
They say that social entrepreneurship is the new green… One thing is certain: social entrepreneurship’s following will grow very fast in 2009, especially after the election of you-know-who.
Social entrepreneurship has almost as many definitions as it has institutions promoting it. For us, the meaning of social entrepreneurship is very well encompassed by the two words composing it :
Entrepreneurship : To create a new venture.
Social : For the common good.
To help find your way in this field, we mapped out what we believe are the best resources to get the news, the money and the training linked to the marvelous world of social entrepreneurship. In no particular order:
Update (02/06/09): Thanks so much for the great feedback! Please note that this list doesn’t aim to be the ULTIMATE social entrepreneurship websites list, nor a billboard: it is simply the resources we use and refer to the most. Look out for the additions to the list.
03/02/09: We recommend you visiting The Top 50 Social Entrepreneurship blogs to watch in 2009. Great resource.
Best Social Entrepreneurship News websites
1. E-180
Ok, that’s us. We keep you posted on social entrepreneurship, consensual education and social media. News, fellowships, training programs, resources.
2. CSR Wire
CSRwire is the leading global source of Corporate Social Responsibility news.
3. Change.org – Social entrepreneurship
The social entrepreneurship blog @ change.org. Nathaniel is the founding Director of the Center for Global Engagement at Northwestern University, which works annually with hundreds of students in dozens of countries around the world through curricular programs and student project incubation.
4. Stanford Social Innovation Review
Strategies, tools and ideas for nonprofits, foundations and socially responsible businesses
5. Fast Company – Social Responsibility
Fast Company often features articles on social responsibility and social entrepreneurship. They also organize every year the Social Capitalist Awards. Along with the 45 world-changing nonprofits, they also honor ten companies not only striving to make a profit, but to also make a difference.
6. Social edge
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. A Skoll Foundation initiative.
NextBillion.net brings together the community of business leaders, social entrepreneurs, NGOs, policy makers, and academics who want to explore the connection between development and enterprise.
8. Alltop : Social entrepreneurship
The best of blogs on social entrepreneurship, from Guy Kawasaki’s Alltop.
The best of blogs on social good, from Guy Kawasaki’s Alltop.
Best Social Entrepreneurship Fellowships and Funding websites
10. Ashoka
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. Since 1981, they have elected over 2,000 leading social entrepreneurs as Ashoka Fellows, providing them with living stipends, professional support, and access to a global network of peers in more than 60 countries.
11. Echoing Green
Since 1987, Echoing Green has provided seed funding and support to more than 450 social entrepreneurs with bold ideas for social change in order to launch groundbreaking organizations around the world. They provide seed money, in the early stage of a social venture.
12. Skoll Foundation
The Skoll Foundation’s mission is to advance systemic change to benefit communities around the world by investing in, connecting and celebrating social entrepreneurs. Their main funding program is the Skoll Awards for Entrepreneurship
13. Tides Foundation
Since 1976, Tides Foundation has worked with donors committed to positive social change. They put resources and people together—strengthening community-based nonprofit organizations and the progressive movement through innovative grantmaking.
They identify the world’s leading social entrepreneurs: Over the past eight years, the Foundation has been selecting 20-30 social entrepreneurs annually from around the world into its network of leading social entrepreneurs. The social entrepreneurs are selected from more than 1000 candidates that apply every year either to a national “Social Entrepreneur of the Year” competition or directly to a regional selection of the Foundation.
The Reynolds’ Foundation funds two great social entrepreneurship fellowships : one for Harvard graduate students and one for NYU graduate students.
+ Unltd
UnLtd is a charity which supports social entrepreneurs – people with vision, drive, commitment and passion who want to change the world for the better. They do this by providing a complete package of funding and support, to help these individuals make their ideas a reality.
Best Social Entrepreneurship Training Programs websites (non-academic)
16. Net impact (Multiple locations)
Net Impact is an international nonprofit organization whose mission is to make a positive impact on society by growing and strengthening a community of leaders who use business to improve the world. We offer a portfolio of programs to educate, equip, and inspire more than 10,000 members to make a tangible difference in their universities, organizations, and communities.
17. StartingBloc (Boston, New York & London)
StartingBloc’s curriculum is delivered through their signature program – The Institute for Social Innovation. The Institute is a two-month program anchored by four one-day conferences. They provide students and young professionals with the training, education, and networks necessary to turn any career into a socially responsible one.
18. Global Social Benefit Incubator (Santa Clara, US)
The Global Social Benefit Incubator (GSBI™), a program developed by Santa Clara University’s Center for Science, Technology, and Society in partnership with Social Edge. It assists social benefit entrepreneurs in developing business plans that enable their organizations to reach increasing numbers of beneficiaries.
+ School of Social Entrepreneurs (Multiple locations: UK, Australia)
The SSE runs practical learning programs aimed at helping develop the individual entrepreneur and their organization simultaneously: our approach, and belief, is that social change is people-powered, and that the most valuable assets and resources we have are human ones.
Best Social Entrepreneurship Training Programs websites (academic)
This list was published by CNN Money in 2007.
19. Babson College (Boston, MA)
The Arthur M. Blank Center for Entrepreneurship is the hub for entrepreneurial activity at Babson. The center’s mission is to lead the global advancement of entrepreneurship education and practice through the development of academic, research, and outreach initiatives that inspire entrepreneurial thinking and cultivate entrepreneurial leadership in all organizations and society.
20. Columbia University (New York, NY)
Columbia offers the Social Enterprise program, where students develop a perspective on how to apply business skills to social enterprise endeavors and align personal and professional values in careers that result in social benefits to a broader community. The curriculum explores social enterprise within four focus areas: Public and Nonprofit Management; International Development and Emerging Markets; Social Entrepreneurship; and Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability.
21. Cornell University (Ithaca, NY)
At the Center for Sustainable Global Enterprise, they believe the private-sector has a critical role to play in helping solve the world’s most pressing environmental and social problems. They work directly with companies around the world to identify, understand, and capitalize on these competitive opportunities.
22. Duke University (Durham, NC)
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.
23. Harvard University (Boston, MA)
Grounded in Harvard Business School’s mission to educate leaders who make a difference in the world, the Social Enterprise Initiative aims to inspire, educate, and support current and emerging leaders in all sectors to apply management skills to create social value.
24. New York University (New York, NY)
The Satter Program in Entrepreneurship is to educate, challenge, and inspire social entrepreneurs to leverage intellectual, social, and financial capital resources with a focus on social change, innovation, and impact.
25. Stanford University (Stanford, CA)
Their Center for Social Innovation aims to inspire and educate social innovators, providing knowledge and ideas that strengthen the capacity of current and future leaders to champion social change.
+ Oxford Saïd Business School (Oxford, England)
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 delivering innovative teaching programmes, the Skoll Centre has developed a portfolio of research which employs theory but that is also valuable to practitioners in the field.
Best Resources for Social Entrepreneurs
+ Center for Social Innovation (Toronto, Canada)
The Centre for Social Innovation is a social enterprise with a mission to catalyze social innovation in its home base of Toronto and around the globe.
Anything we missed?
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Entry Filed under: Funding, News, Social entrepreneurship. Tags: common good, fellowships, News, Resources, Social entrepreneurship, training.
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Christine Renaud
Catherine Therrien
1.
Katbaloo | February 4, 2009 at 1:40 pm
Would love to have you check us out!
2.
Nick Temple | February 5, 2009 at 7:36 am
Hi there – I would suggest you have missed the rest of the world out. Social entrepreneurship isn’t only about US-based organisations…..
See http://www.sse.org.uk/linksresources.php?sub=WEBLINKS for more
3.
Christine Renaud | February 5, 2009 at 8:54 am
Fair enough, though most of these organizations are US-based but act worldwide (except the schools). Your list is actually referring to local components of these organizations, plus some great UK additions, such as School for Social Entrepreneur, Unltd.
Thanks for making this list a little more local!
4.
Nick Temple | February 5, 2009 at 10:19 am
No problem – although I think I was making it a little more global!
Worth noting that there is UnLtd India, and we’re opening SSEs in Australia, + working to do so in Canada and China. Plus there are great organisations like CSI in Toronto (socialinnovation.ca), Social Entrepreneurs Ireland, SELF in Germany, Kaos Pilots in Denmark, Social Ventures Australia, as well as quite a few organisations in Japan and Korea. And you could do a whole alternative list of university / school programmes in the UK, Europe and elsewhere which are arguably much more pioneering than some of those listed above (Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship in Oxford, Roskilde in Denmark, leading research at Bologna etc).
I think it’s also about adding to the US version of social entrepreneurship (which tends to focus on scale, and tends to be about US based organisations working in the developing world), and hopefully opening people’s eyes to what is happening / can be learned from the rest of the world as well.
Look forward to continuing the conversation.
Cheers
5.
Anke Wessels | February 5, 2009 at 8:29 pm
Check out Ashoka’s new Changemaker Campus Initiative. Ashoka has launched a year-long partnership with four universities – Cornell, Johns Hopkins, George Mason, and the University of Maryland – designed to dramatically improve the changemaking potential of universities and the students, faculty, and staff who occupy them.Teams of select faculty, staff, and students from each school are working together to create, refine, and implement an innovative plan to strengthen social entrepreneurship teaching, research, and student engagement on their campuses. What I enjoy most about this is that it is a campus-wide initiative, drawing on students, faculty, and staff in all disciplines and colleges. Also, it softens the lines between activists, researchers, and entrepreneurs.
6.
Lisa Canning | February 5, 2009 at 10:19 pm
Yes, you missed our growing site!
http://www.EntrepreneurTheArts.com: Innovating Through Artistry
7.
Hima Batavia | February 6, 2009 at 12:10 am
MARS Discovery District in Canada is very committed to social entrepreneurship
http://www.marsdd.com/MaRS-Home.html
“MaRS is a non-profit innovation centre connecting science, technology and social entrepreneurs with business skills, networks and capital to stimulate innovation and accelerate the creation and growth of successful Canadian enterprises”
8.
Seth Cochran | February 6, 2009 at 5:26 am
For educational programs, you missed the Saïd Business School at Oxford which has the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship. Otherwise, its a pretty decent list. Cheers!
9.
Dan Lehner | February 6, 2009 at 5:32 am
We like to think of ourselves as both local and global
10.
Alex Gudich-Yulle | February 6, 2009 at 3:34 pm
In terms of Social Entrepreneurship in an academic setting, University Network is a great resource. It’s a partnership between Skoll, Ashoka, SEKN, and EMES.
http://universitynetwork.org/
11.
Anthony Showalter | February 6, 2009 at 5:21 pm
Thanks for including Echoing Green in your list! Nice compilation here.
12. AndySowards.com :: Web Development Nerdy Daily Links For 2/07/2009 | AndySowards.com :: Professional Web Design, Development, Programming, Hacks, Downloads, Math and being a Web 2.0 Hipster? | February 6, 2009 at 11:52 pm
[...] Our Top 25 Social Entrepreneurship websites « E-180 / Where social entrepreneurship, education and … Great List of Social Entrepreneur Sites! (tags: resources socialnetworking list business entrepreneurship marketing socialmedia collaboration blogs) [...]
13.
ernest morgan | February 7, 2009 at 2:46 am
I AM INQUIRY ABOUT FUNDS START-UP A BUSINESS CAN FIND INVESTER OR THERE ANY GRANTS AVARIABLE.
14. Die besten Social Entrepreneurship Ressourcen « Mutmacher | February 8, 2009 at 1:47 am
[...] 8, 2009 Posted by sukrueger in Social Entrepreneurs(hip) News. trackback Unsere Kollegen auf E-180, einer amerikanischen Social Entrepreneurship Informationsseite haben eine Liste mit den besten 25 [...]
15. The Daily Entrepreneur « CBD Journal | February 8, 2009 at 2:26 am
[...] Our Top 25 Social Entrepreneurship Websites: The good folks at e-180 put together a great list of resources for those interested in social entrepreneurs, that includes blogs, academic programs, fellowships, and more. [...]
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[...] http://e-180.com/2009/02/04/our-top-25-social-entrepreneurship-websites/ Posted in Social Entrepreneur | Tags: Nonprofit, Social entrpreneur, Social Networking [...]
17.
Nathan Ketsdever | February 8, 2009 at 8:51 pm
Next Billion is awesome. So it Social Edge of course.
I also think the case studies at the University of Michigan are fantastics–I think they are pretty much the same case studies Prahalad uses in Bottom of the Pyramid.
Second, I would say that Cornell’s list of videos from social entrepreneurial practitioners are on point. The videos are fantastic because they are short.
Third, I think the idea of micro franchising is going to take off as a response to some foibles of micro loaning. I think the micro franchising blog + wiki are great resources in this space.
You can check out my list of social enterprise resources for the “Bottom of the Pyramid” list by clicking on the link. I believe I include the above three in the list.
Thanks for putting together such a great resource!
18.
Christine Renaud | February 11, 2009 at 7:04 pm
Thanks for all your suggestions and comments! It is very exciting to see how fast the field is growing, in every corner of the world!
19.
Arthi | February 18, 2009 at 11:14 am
We would like to be evaluated too! I would like to invite you to come over to our website and ping me if you need details. We would love to link you up on our blogs and online communities as well. Please mail us your thoughts and opinions. It matters to us! Thank you for the opportunity!
20.
Joergi | February 23, 2009 at 12:24 pm
For sure, next year you wil mention http://www.netzwirken.net. They just startet, but I think it could be a big thing in the next furure…
21.
Open source Social Entrepreneurship curriculum « E-180 / Where social entrepreneurship, education and social media meet | March 4, 2009 at 8:28 am
[...] entrepreneurship has been around for a little while now, but it seems to have exploded lately. The interest it stirs makes it the next big social trend, according to [...]
22.
social networking san diego | March 28, 2009 at 10:03 pm
great blog! thank you very much for hr lists- here’s to the movement. cheers- twitterholic justinrfrench
23.
Christine Renaud | April 6, 2009 at 3:27 pm
Thanks for the good words Justin!
24.
Ken Rowbotham | April 10, 2009 at 11:29 am
The Funding Websites section was mainly “Foundations” – is there a similar summary for Social Venture Capital that anyone has come up with? Our new social entrepreneurial venture (www.bettertheworld.com) is Canadian (eh?) so a full North American lens would also be great.
25.
Nick Temple | April 27, 2009 at 3:04 am
Nice one for updating, guys! Cool list.
26.
Gavin Heaton | May 25, 2009 at 9:25 pm
Excellent list!
You could also include http://www.vibewire.org
27.
Tyler Hartung | May 28, 2009 at 12:54 am
We think this blog is awesome, maybe even a little Unreasonable. But you did miss UnreasonableInstitute.org
28.
Courtney Collins | May 29, 2009 at 6:14 pm
The School for Social Entrepreneurs Australia is LIVE! Check out our students and their projects at http://www.sse.org.au
29.
surdurulebiliryasam | June 3, 2009 at 2:54 pm
hi!
what you missed:
the hub network: it’s a growing international network of co-working spaces for social innovators and entrepreneurs. http://www.the-hub.net
the other one is Kaospilots: It’s a progressive school for entrepreneurs in Denmark. It totally has a social edge to it.
http://www.kaospilots.dk
30.
Christine Renaud | June 13, 2009 at 4:08 pm
@Tyler: We did miss the Unreasonable Institute, which I discovered not too long after writing this post. I’ll add it to our official list! How’s the preparation going for next year?
@everybody else: I’m catching up on the comments, and will make sure to review your inspiring initiatives. Stay tuned!
31.
A gift from @socialedge: The Top 100 Tweeps to Follow for Social Entrepreneurship « E-180 / Where social entrepreneurship, education and social media meet | June 24, 2009 at 12:35 pm
[...] Organized by categories, you’ll find the Top 100 Tweeps to follow on Twitter for Social Entrepreneurship, as well as the main hashtags linked to social entrepreneurship. I heart Tops. [...]
32.
MIke | June 26, 2009 at 3:31 pm
It’s interesting that you took an image from For Impact, but did not list them. For Impact is hands down the best fundraising training company out there. If you’re a social entrepreneur who will fundraise or sell, it’s a must. I’m speaking as someone who attended a For Impact training and had a 10x ROI in the first month.
33.
Richard | June 30, 2009 at 6:53 am
check out others in Africa too such as http://www.kardsafrica.org