For those of you who’ve checked out my Social Entrepreneurship 101 post and watched the intro video on the field, you know that Social Entrepreneurship covers a lot of territory. But what exactly does it mean to be a social entrepreneur? And where can these budding innovators go to learn more, connect with other social entrepreneurs, and receive the training and financial support they need to actually have an impact?

There are a ton of resources out there and plenty of organizations supporting social entrepreneurs-at-work. What’s interesting, though, is that as I have become more entrenched in and learned more about the world of social entrepreneurship, I’ve found that it’s actually quite a small circle of folks who are making the most waves. With that in mind, I thought I’d use this space to Promote some of my favorite articles, stories, and resources that I’ve come across in my research and learning. I hope that these links will prove to be as helpful to you in your learning as they’ve been in mine.

For a great overview of the field of social entrepreneurship, check out this Wikipedia listing. Social entrepreneurship has become quite a buzzword lately, and I think this entry does a good job of distilling it down to the basics.

From there I recommend checking out this terrific article from the Stanford Social Innovation Review: “Social Entrepreneurship Revisited”. I’ve often wondered what types of people and organizations are best suited to effect change through social entrepreneurship and in his article, NYU Professor Paul C. Light discusses four key tenets of social entrepreneurship and the characteristics that make socially entrepreneurial people and organizations successful.

One of the best ways to understand social entrepreneurship is to learn from the trailblazers of the field; that is, actual social entrepreneurs. A couple of my favorites (that I had the pleasure of hearing from directly at the 2008 Net Impact conference) are the White Dog Cafe and Sweetriot. Both are very successful businesses that also have clear social missions. Another great resource for learning about real social entrepreneurs is Business Week’s spotlight of America’s Most Promising Social Entrepreneurs. By clicking on the arrows at the top right, you can scroll through a list of almost 30 social entrepreneurs doing truly amazing things. Also, I haven’t had a chance to read it yet but I hear that The Blue Sweater (by Jacqueline Novogratz, the Founder and CEO of Acumen Fund) is a must-read for social entrepreneurs-in-training.

So you’ve got a great idea that meets a distinct social need in your community–but how do you get it off the ground? The answer is money. Luckily for you, there are a number of well-known, well-funded organizations that want to help social entrepreneurs like you get your idea going. A couple of my favorites include:

• Ashoka is truly a leading social entrepreneurship organization; in fact, Ashoka’s founder Bill Drayton is often mentioned as the man who coined the name in the first place. An absolute go-to site for learning about the history and future of social entrepreneurship.
• Echoing Green, who’s tagline is “Social Change Starts Here,” is a NY-based organization providing seed funding and fellowship support to social entrepreneurs as they put their ideas into practice.
• New Profit, based in Cambridge, MA, is an organization geared toward helping social entrepreneurs and their organizations scale. It’s a crucial question when your model has been successful on a local level and you want to expand your reach and impact.
• Skoll Foundation, founded by Jeff Skoll of eBay (along with his co-founder Pierre Omidyar who’s well-known in the philanthropy community), takes a truly global approach to social entrepreneurship. In fact, the Skoll World Forum is perhaps the world’s leading global conference on social entrepreneurship.
• Finally, thanks to the Skoll Foundation and a few of its partners, budding social entrepreneurs will now be easier to find (and fund). The Social Entrepreneurship API (or Application Programming Interface), launching in July 2009, is an open database of social entrepreneurs that will “allow philanthropists, investors, press, and fellow entrepreneurs to find social entrepreneurs based on keyword, location, cause area, population served, and a variety of other factors.” Not only will it help funders find potential social entrepreneurs to support, but it should also provide these talented innovators with forum for exchanging ideas and supporting one another.

As an interesting aside, there’s currently a whole new movement called Social Intrapreneurship, which essentially means making change from the inside out. I just recently participated in a Net Impact conference call launching the organization’s new guide, “Making Your Impact at Work: A practical guide to changing the world from inside any company”. It’s a great resource for people looking for ways to make small changes in their workplace that promote and reinforce sustainability principles.

So there you have it: my quick rundown on the best social entrepreneurship resources out there. Certainly this list only scratches the surface, but it’s a great place to start. And remember, for you social entrepreneurs out there, if you’re currently working to create your own community of change, I want to hear about it! Please contact me and we can discuss you sharing your story on The Changebase.