Nurturing and Incentivizing Social Entrepreneurs

Scott Ballum's article "Don't Start a Social Enterprise -- Unless You Have To" on Huffington Post brought up a lot of feelings and ideas about nurturing social entrepreneurs. His honest warning about the hard, thankless and misunderstood work of a social entrepreneur is all too familiar.

Truth is, the plane is being built while we're flying it. We have embraced a new way of working that is quite frankly the future of sustainability for mission based or social impact work. Whether for-profit or nonprofit, the work of a social entrepreneur is connected to some social issues that they are attempting to transform. Previously, this was held by the anointed 501c3 status...which has enjoyed some perks in our country for taking on such causes as homelessness, poverty, health care, education, etc.

So how do we nurture these entrepreneurial and opportunistic do-gooders? Let's throw some ideas on the table... I am not advocating necessarily for all of these, but it seemed fun to think big.

• Traditional business development (incubator type activities)


• Access to new and traditional capital


• Tax exempt status - when associated with causes and missions why can't this transfer to individuals or businesses for different aspects of their business


• Access to affordable benefits that protect the long-term stability of these professionals


• Development of a Social Entrepreneurs Union


• Subsidized supplies and distribution models (think agricultural subsidies for farmers)

In some cases, social entrepreneurs will define themselves as evolved business types, in others, they are the next generation of nonprofit leaders. The incentives should be approached accordingly. Either way, individuals who devote their professional activities to solving problems and improving our country should be considered not unlike those who "serve" our country to protect our safety and freedom.