Barack Obama was elected the United States' 44th president last night after the longest - and perhaps most exciting - campaign in American history. The task of tackling the many challenges facing the country and the world now begins - and all signs indicate that greater support for social innovation and entrepreneurship will be part of the strategy. In his campaign platform, Obama had called for the development of both a Social Investment Fund Network and a Social Entrepreneurship Agency for Nonprofits. He also co-sponsored, along with Senator McCain, the recently introduced Serve America Act, which includes several components supportive of social entrepreneurship.

With less than 50 days until Election Day, the presidential candidates are working hard to point out their differences.  By the tenor of this election, you’d never know there are issues on which the candidates actually agree!  But there are, and policies that support the work of social entrepreneurs are among them.
 
For example, Senators McCain and Obama recently co-sponsored The Serve America Act of 2008, new legislation that recognizes the work of social entrepreneurs and includes several policy ideas that would foster and support social entrepreneurship.

In 2006, Louisiana Lt. Governor Mitch Landrieu established the nation's first statewide Office of Social Entrepreneurship (see an overview of the OSE's mission, model, strategies, and vision).  This coming fall, the office will pilot a social innovation fund which will provide support to innovative, effective and sustainable solutions to social problems in Louisiana.
 

In Sunday’s Boston Globe, director of the Institute of Contemporary Art Jill Medvedow wrote an op-ed entitled "Harnessing our innovative ideas" which spotlights our Advancing Social Entrepreneurship report.  She congratulates Governor Deval Patrick on his recent appointment of a creative economy director and calls for a long-term investment strategy and the development of a $1 billion social impact fund (see Public Innovators’ related recommendations for a public-private social innovation fund and a National Social Innovation Foundation).  In line with our own findings in Advancing Social Entrepreneurship, Medvedow argues that Massachusetts has “the opportunity to lead with ideas, innovation, and investment, and replicate the strategies that so successfully fostered American entrepreneurialism.”