How does social entrepreneurship help government benefit society?
- Leveraging public and private resources: Because of their focus on financial sustainability, social entrepreneurs identify and utilize new and existing resources, both financial and nonfinancial, to help them address social problems. Often this means that social entrepreneurs are able to implement solutions to social problems on a wider scale that have previously been too costly.
At times, social entrepreneurs also end up shifting costs from public budgets to private resources, thus freeing up government tax revenue to address other needs. Learn how KaBOOM! and ITNAmerica have leveraged public and private resources.
- Testing and developing solutions: Despite the best efforts of government, nonprofits, and individual citizens, solutions for social problems can be hard to find. As Gregory Dees notes, "With all of our scientific knowledge and rational planning, we still do not know in advance what will work effectively. Thus, progress in the social sphere depends on a process of innovation and experimentation...an active, messy, highly decentralized learning process."
Given the challenges-and frequent failures-of attempts to innovate, social entrepreneurs supply a second valuable benefit to government. According to Jeffrey Robinson, assistant professor of management and entrepreneurship at New York University's Stern School of Business, "Experimentation is the value of social entrepreneurship to government. How do you break a logjam? Social entrepreneurs are often successful in figuring it out." Learn how City Year and New Leaders for New Schools have tested and developed innovative solutions.
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