This Week in Social Entrepreneurship

In our “This Week in Social Entrepreneurship” series, each Friday we will feature the top stories in Social Entrepreneurship for the week that we find to be noteworthy, novel, and thought-provoking.  What are your favorite stories this week in Social Entrepreneurship?  Let’s start a discussion!

• Have you been looking for a comprehensive guide to all the essential resources and tools to meet your social change needs?  SoJo aims to connect changemakers to the resources and tools they need to become full-fledged social entrepreneurs.  SoJo is still a work-in-progress, but the team is sharing its Beta site with the world so that it can start making a difference for social entrepreneurs as soon as possible. This is your opportunity to get in at the beginning–start looking around SoJo’s site, provide feedback so you can find the resources that really matter once SoJo launches out of Beta, and follow along SoJo’s journey on the blog documenting its progress.  
• It’s officially the holiday shopping season.  Don’t you want to make sure that you are shopping with impact this holiday season?  Check out this awesome “shopping for good” gift giving guide by Ashoka’s Changemakers.  It includes apps to download that will rate products on how ethically they were made or their health, environmental and social impact, places to buy one-of-a-kind gifts while supporting small and local businesses and even a locally grown food finder for Locavores trying to plan their holiday meals.  Expecting a lot of gifts this year that you don’t need?  Do you want to encourage your loved ones to use your designated gift money to give to charities instead?  Send them over to Shift My Gift and tell them there are people that need the money more than you and the best gift they could give you is the gift of charity.
• Two weeks ago, we encouraged you to check out the 2011 Social Enterprise Bootcamp.  If you weren’t able to attend, Dowser has provided social entrepreneurs a list of key takeaways from the event.  No business can change everything–pick one and do it well.  Expect and anticipate hurdles and work on how you are going to overcome them.  Starting a business is not easy–make sure you are doing what you love.  Make sure you design keeping your consumer’s needs in mind.  Value your product/service correctly–be sure not to undervalue it.  Don’t forget the importance of basic logistics.  Finally, reflect on what you learn.  Taking the time to soak it all in is essential to retaining this new knowledge.
• We’re sure you all remember Simon Mainwaring, the amazing author behind We First, who we want to thank again for participating in our monthly SocEnt book club conference call.  Simon has just released a free Social Branding training video that we really suggest you check out.  It’s a great supplement to We First: How Brands and Consumers Use Social Media to Build a Better World.  If you haven’t read We First yet, what are you waiting for?  Strategy + Business named it the best marketing book of 2011!  Check out Simon’s book and training video today for expert advice on transforming your social branding strategy.
• Forbes has a long, storied 94-year history.  For the first time in that 94-year history, it has put together Impact 30–a list of the world’s 30 leading social entrepreneurs.  The list includes Jacqueline Novogratz of Acumen Fund, Daniel Epstein of Unreasonable Institute, the minds behind B Lab and d.light design and Tom Szaky of Terracycle, among many others.  We want to congratulate all the amazing social entrepreneurs on this list for their amazing accomplishments–but we also want to give a very special congratulations to Darell Hammond of KaBoom.  Darell’s book, KaBOOM!: How One Man Built a Movement to Save Play was featured in our SocEnt book club back in September of this year.  Check out Forbes’ list, read more about these amazing individuals and join us in congratulating each and every one of them.  These are the people inspiring us all to make a huge difference in this world and for that, we thank them.

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Social entrepreneurs, has all this great SocEnt news inspired you to start your own good?  Do you have a social enterprise, a non-profit, or an amazing idea that needs some momentum to take off?  Visit our site to find out how to start your own campaign today.  Still have questions?  We have answers—check out our FAQ section.