What is a Social Entrepreneur?

Social entrepreneurs are people who see unmet social needs and build new initiatives to address them. Some come straight out of the communities they serve, others from a professional background. They run non-profits, social enterprises and social businesses. What they share are entrepreneurial skills and characteristics, allied to a social mission.

At a time when social and environmental challenges are increasing and traditional approaches are failing or unable to meet new demands, social entrepreneurs can hold the seeds of a new approach. Outside the system and close to the ground, people like Wally, Michael, Ray, Adele and Pamela see both the needs of the community and ways to address them that transcend existing approaches. And they generate a multiplier effect as they create jobs, capabilities and opportunities around them.

But being a successful social entrepreneur isn’t easy. It takes business skills – financial, legal, organisational – and life skills – resilience, confidence, and perseverance. And it takes great networks: none of this work can be done alone.

Internationally, organisations working with social entrepreneurs have found that the best way to help them succeed isn’t through providing traditional training or qualifications. Social entrepreneurs need support to learn “on the job” which combines personal and project growth with business skills development, in a context with their peers.

The NZCSI Social Entrepreneurs School will provide an accessible, purpose-built training and learning programme for our social entrepreneurs. SES will support people like Wally, Michael, Ray, Adele and Pamela to take their projects from an idea to sustainable reality.