Let me illustrate the way we at the Foundation see social entrepreneurship by drawing some distinctions between it, civil society organizations, and philanthropy, with a view to stimulating some thinking and debate on this subject. Civil society is linked conceptually and practically to democratic governance and to sustainable development. The new political context that has emerged, marked by democracy and citizen participation, should increasingly lead to collaboration among state and market actors, and civil society to advance a more equitable global agenda. In the conception of sustainable development, civil society and its organizations become partners of state institutions and market actors. In principle, social entrepreneurs can emerge and operate from any of the three sectors, i.e., state institutions, market actors or organizations of civil society.
Social entrepreneurs seek and stimulate transformation of the status quo.
But their interest is much less ideological than it is practical. By way of example, while some entities may lobby for important restrictive legislation banning some activity or product, such as the use of a particular pesticide, a social entrepreneur would be at work designing and working with farmers to adopt the use of a competing, low cost organic alternative to that pesticide. Social entrepreneurs are much more similar to business entrepreneurs than they are to organizations of either the civil sector or the public sector. However, in setting up their organizational arrangements, because social entrepreneurs are creating social value first and foremost, the entities they create are usually of the non-profit type . It is particularly directed towards enhancing the quality of life of disenfranchised groups such as those who are poor, sick, disabled or otherwise socially marginalized.