Social Entrepreneurship Needs More Supporters

Texas was recently rated the best state in America for business. That’s something Innovate Texas Foundation is very proud of. With the Lance Armstrong Foundation and several other major nonprofits based here in the state, Texas is also a leader in nonprofit activity.

There are several people in Texas and around the world focused on another type of nonprofit giving that both creates jobs and helps those in need: social entrepreneurship. These entrepreneurs, although not primarily focused on financial success, are a vast group of innovators and great minds in need of key investments as well.

In a recent Huffington Post blog (Link), author Tom Watson wrote, “The world recession has placed government as square in the front and center of the social commons as it's been at any time since the end of the Second World War.” Watson went on to state that while the social entrepreneurship crowd had longtime prided itself on self-sustainability, not relying on government support for its work, the recession had proved even this group of well-meaning individuals and organizations should consider aligning themselves with government funding, just as their corporate and nonprofit counterparts have. It seems no one has gone unscathed in the last year.

However, compared to traditional capitalist entrepreneurship, social entrepreneurship strives to provide equally important benefits to economic development and often times puts more emphasis on the greater good than the greater return. And with the recession bearing down on every state and major city in America, economic development has never been more important.

So while Innovate Texas Foundation is equally supportive of capitalist entrepreneurship and social entrepreneurship as methods to create jobs and support the economy, we understand that, if anything, social entrepreneurship may be even harder hit by the economic situation since they seldom offer financial returns for their investors. Making it more difficult to get the next dollar for research and innovation.

Fortunately, major foundations such as the Gates Foundation and the Kauffman Foundation are providing more funding options for social entrepreneurs, including a Gates Foundation investment in research being done by Penn State University professor, Thomas Baker, to inhibit the spread of malaria-carrying mosquitoes by introducing the mosquitoes to a fungus. These are much needed investments.

Still, as the Austin ranking demonstrates, there are countless nonprofit and social entrepreneurship organizations, and by extension their causes, that go underfunded. These are very worthy causes, of course. This video shows Dr. V, a social entrepreneur (in India), who had an idea about eradicating unnecessary blindness by serving people with cataract surgery (Link).

These stories expand across the globe. To do our part, we’ll do our best to support their causes and efforts here in Texas. Just as we will help small businesses get off the ground and develop their markets, we’ll look to help social entrepreneurs find more customers.