Working in the field of social innovation is exciting for me, as it surfaces a variety of challenges but also opportunities across sectors to envision and implement social change. I recently attended the week-long World Economic Forum (WEF), held annually in the peaceful village of Davos in the Swiss Alps (actually 100 miles from my birthplace), and the conference provided a terrific forum for dialogue around social change and joint action.

For many years, social entrepreneurs experimented with and created solutions for social problems below the radar. Some people celebrated them as heroes; others viewed their activities as the lab work for society. The last decade, however, was a real game changer. The discourse on and practice of social entrepreneurs has changed, and their work has attracted the attention of a broader audience. The financial service industry is discovering that social innovation is a space for making investments with impact beyond profit; businesses see social innovation as a means to create “shared value” and consider collaborations with social entrepreneurs as an effective way to pursue opportunities at the[...]

[Published in NonProfitBlogs - Read the original article]