Ashoka's founder Bill Drayton believes that everyone can be a change maker. In this talk, he reflects on many of the early influences that helped him understand how to advance true social progress. From these beginnings, he traces his own path in public service, and describes the founding of Ashoka which has grown into a flourishing network of social entrepreneurs who can serve as role models for further progress in promoting social justice around the globe.

I was thinking how I might tackle the topic of mission-driven businesses and social entrepreneurship and it reminded me how many people are still unfamiliar with the concept of a mission-driven business. There is so much great press on the terms of the day: green, eco friendly, fair trade, social entrepreneurism, and this seems like a good time to level set the terms.

This lengthy guide introduces tax-exemption status for non-profit organizations. Read this if you contemplate establishing a not-for-profit organization.

Laws require corporations, as legal entities owning property, entering contracts, and assuming debt, have a governing board of directors, accountable as a fiduciary to its shareholders, members, or the public. These governing boards organize and operate according to articles of incorporation, bylaws, resolutions, and policies, oversee corporate purpose and plans, select and supervise management, ensure sufficient resources for the organization, and ensure compliance with laws and regulations. This linked page outlines and links many more pages covering governance and policy; roles and responsibilities; operations and systems; accountability and ethics; staffing, compensation, communications and the issues of running an organization. It also covers director training as a comprehensive overview and exemplar of how boards should work. The scope and volume of information make it suitable for a weekend workshop with additional homework in addition to a checklist and toolkit enroute to introducing best practices.

America Forward is a nonpartisan coalition of social entrepreneurs and high-impact organizations who believe a public policy approach that incorporates the principles of innovation, performance, competition, accountability, and results will generate solutions to otherwise intractable social problems. America Forward and its coalition members do not endorse any candidates for public office. America Forward intends to report on important political campaign issues and activities related to its mission of increasing dialogue among policymakers and candidates regarding social entrepreneurship, and a new role for government in solving our toughest social problems.

Fashions in goodness change, just like fashions in anything else, and these days some of the very noblest people have assumed the manners of the business world — even though they don’t aim for profit. They call themselves social entrepreneurs, and you can find them in the neediest places on earth.

Through innovative assistance for entrepreneurship - including direct microcredit loans and tangible support for the other community partnership projects - we seek to unleash the energy and creativity of every human being we work with in order to create wealth and prosperity in emerging economies.

In their March 9, 2008, column in the Times Magazine, Dubner and Levitt ask: why can’t a charity be run more like a business? They look at two philanthropies that have adopted unorthodox business models.

Brian Mullaney’s epiphany occurred back in 1994 in Vietnam. He was traveling as a board member with Operation Smile, a charity that performed cleft-repair surgery on poor children around the world.

Conventional wisdom says that scaling social innovation starts with strengthening internal management capabilities. This study of 12 high-impact nonprofits,