Teaching Social Entrepreneurship

By Ayse Guclu, J. Gregory Dees and Beth Battle Anderson Geoff Cramer and Bill Ziefle’s plan to establish Futures For Kids (F4K), a nonprofit organization designed to provide high school kids with resources for exploring their post-high school educational, training and career opportunities, had seemed destined to succeed. But after a year, success no longer […]

Social entrepreneurship describes a set of behaviors that are exceptional. These behaviors should be encouraged and rewarded in those who have the capabilities and temperaments for this kind of work. We could use many more of them. Should everyone aspire to be a social entrepreneur? No. Not every social sector leader is well suited to […]

By Gregory J Dees and Beth Battle Anderson It’s August 2000, and Maitri AIDS Hospice in San Francisco is reevaluating its approach to fundraising. In recent years, Maitri has been relying increasingly on government, corporate, and foundation grants. Yet Don Spradlin, Maitri’s associate director for individual gifts who was hired in early 1999 to focus […]

Social Entrepreneurs can create mutually beneficial relationships with their stakeholders and donors by learning from customer-oriented businesses. Specifically, three good habits social entrepreneurs can learn from customer-oriented business includes: Who Cares, March/April 1998 p 36 – 37 By Gregory J Dees Article_Dees_ACustomerByAnyOtherName_1998

This note broadly defines the concept of market failure and explores options for responding to it, paying particular attention to the role of business leaders in addressing market deficiencies Harvard Business Review, 1996 By Gregory J Dees Responding to Market Failures

Dr. Glenn Lopez, the founder and general director of GuateSalud, faces cash flow problems and some crucial choices about how to expand his innovative health maintenance organization for agricultural workers in rural Guatemala. The case describes Lopez’s six-year struggle to establish GuateSalud and the organization’s effort to combine business principles with a social mission. Also […]

This note identifies six dimensions that are useful for understanding the differences between private social-purpose organizations (nonprofit and for-profit) and traditional business firms. It also discusses the role of social enterprise in society and trends creating opportunities for social entrepreneurship. Harvard Business Review, 1994 By Gregory J Dees Social Enterprise: Private Initiatives for the Common […]

Less than three years ago, Steve Mariotti created NFTE, a nonprofit organization for teaching entrepreneurship to disadvantaged youths. The organization has gained national recognition, and offers a variety of programs on a budget of nearly half a million dollars. It is still run out of Mariotti’s apartment. Mariotti is beginning to feel the stress of […]