Introduction to Social Entrepreneurship

Social entrepreneurship involves the promotion and building of enterprises or organizations that create wealth, with the intention of benefiting not just a person, family or clan but a defined constituency, sector or community usually involving the public at large or the marginalized sectors of society. The course aims to inspire participants to establish or participate in social enterprises. Topics to be discussed include definitions of social entrepreneurship, case studies on existing social enterprises, crafting a social enterprise concept, identifying sources of funding, and creating action plans for delivering social enterprise products and services. Modules integrate the use of management practices (human resource, marketing, operations and finance) with sustainable development. The course emphasizes that social enterprises, like business enterprises, are also concerned with financial sustainability. However, social enterprises go beyond profits, setting bottomlines that not only contribute to financial sustainability, but also towards development objectives.