NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Tuesday, April 16, 2019

By Sarah Shearman

As businesses with a mission to do good become increasingly trendy, social entrepreneurs said they were finding it harder than ever to tackle one of their major problems – explaining what they do.

For years social entrepreneurs trying to solve a wide range of issues from affordable healthcare to homelessness have faced the same question: are you running a charity or a business?

There is no universally accepted definition but a social entrepreneur can be described as someone who applies commercial strategies to tackle social and environmental problems and can operate as a for-profit or not-for-profit businesses.

Photo courtesy of David Weekly.