A businessperson used to be defined as cold and cutthroat, whacking down the poor and exploiting the system to gain cold, hard cash.  Not so with social entrepreneurs.  The term social entrepreneurship was coined in the 1960’s and ‘70’s and came to the public vernacular in the 1980’s and ‘90s.  These business savvy folks create businesses to impact change—selling bottled water and using the profits to bring clean water to the third world, using the Internet to fight hunger in India, creating businesses that help young people achieve their entrepreneurial dreams.  The concept is not new, but the call to use the corporate world to fix social problems is becoming more necessary and international everyday. Here are some examples of the most inspiring social entrepreneurs changing the world today:

--Mimi Silbert.  Delancey Street Foundation.  San Francisco.  Silbert wanted to create a home for substance abusers and former felons could live.  Her ambition paid off when she created the first of her homes in 1971 with a thousand dollar loan.  Today, she owns locations in New York, New Mexico, Los Angeles and North Carolina, without any government assistance. She doesn’t need it, acculumulating 20 million dollars a year from the businesses run out of the center. She has helped more than 14,000 people turn their lives around. 

--Moses Zulu. Children’s Town.  Lusaka, Zambia.  Zulu opened Children’s Town in 1990 to help Zambian orphans who lost their parents in the AIDS epidemic and other causes.  The town serves nearly 300 children and employs a staff of 22 people.  Zulu’s cause is pressing—in Lusaka there are an estimated 75,000 AIDS orphans. 

--Nick Moon & Martin Fisher. ApproTEC. Nairobi, Kenya, Tanzania, Mali, San Franscisco.  ApproTEC makes tools that allow people to work more efficiently, thereby raising themselves out of poverty. Their tools are marketed in Africa and include micro-irrigation pumps and sunflower and sesame seed oil presses. Moon and Fisher say that people who buy their tools see their income increase by a factor of ten. 

--Dina Abdel Wahab.  The Baby Academy.  Cairo, Egypt.Abdel Wahab’s son was born with Down syndrome. At that time in Egypt, she had nowhere to send him to preschool where he would be given a good education and integration with non-Down syndrome kids.  In Egypt, no children—developmentally challenged or not—were getting a educationally challenging preschool—only babysitting. Today, Abdel Wahab’s preschool with an early education has expanded to a chain, with more than 20 percent developmentally challenged enrollees.  

--UnLtd. United Kingdom.  Created in 2002 with the support of seven nonprofit leaders, the organization has a  £100 million endowment for social entrepreneurs.  The center gives out cash awards, but also provides training and networking for community projects.

--Vikram Akula.  SKS Microfinance. Andhra Pradesh, India. Akula’s for-profit enterprise microlends and provides insurance to poor Indian women.  The company charges an interest rate of 24.55% on its loans, a low cost in India, and has served more than 7.7 million clients.    

--About Face International.  This organization encourages participation in social entrepreneurship in young people.  They provide interest-free loans, grants and mentorships to middle school, high school and college students, also helping these students to form social entrepreneurial clubs at their schools. 

--SOGLA. Turkey.  The Academy of Young Social Entrepreneurs (SOGLA) provides young entrepreneurs with education and support to develop, create and run their projects.