Social Entrepreneurship at the Macro Level: Three Lessons for Success (Innovations Case Discussion: Sekem)

included a concern with entrepreneurial innovation in the not-for-profit sector. It seems to us that this sort of entrepreneurship is not yet generally or fully understood. For example, a New York Times op-ed piece by Nicholas Kristof (2008) offers examples of social entrepreneurship. We question whether some of these examples really represent social entrepreneurship: Andrew Klaber’s charitable foundation covers the school expenses of children orphaned by AIDS, while Jennifer Staple’s organization collects old reading glasses in the U.S. and ships them to poor countries. These are, of course, inspiring examples of young people who have created charities that have done a great deal of good, but they are not examples of entrepreneurship, let alone social entrepreneurship. A central reason is the fact that neither is truly innovative. Many charitable organizations, such as Orphans Against AIDS, provide educational assistance to such children; Save the Children is a wellknown, long-standing example of this work. As for the mission of Staple’s Unite for Sight, the Lions Club International has been collecting eyeglasses and distributing them to the poor for many years. One might argue that Kristof ’s examples are innovative because they are Internet-based, but both of the much older charities we mentioned also have extensive Internet sites.