Five Social Entrepreneurship Projects You Might Not Have Heard of Yet (But You Will)

by Nathaniel Whittemore

Published October 04, 2008 @ 02:43PM PST

While Muhammad Yunus, John Wood, Wendy Kopp and a handful of other individuals have brought an immense amount of press to the emerging field of social entrepreneurship, new enterprises with the potential to change the world emerge every day. Here are five social entrepreneurship projects you might not have heard of yet, but we think are on fundamentally transformative paths.

A video of a Kenyan farmer One Acre Fund works with mixing a typical lunch

Andrew Youn

Organization: One Acre Fund

What it does: One Acre Fund attacks the problem of global hunger by moving from relief and food aid to increased production. By putting together kits and training that help farmers increase their crop yields, One Acre Fund is helping farmers shift from subsistence to tradable surpluses.

Why it’s important: As we’ve seen, even modest changes in the price of basic food stables can wreak havoc on the global economy, not only threatening people with hunger, malnutrition, and disease, but encouraging political instability. Programs that empower communities of farmers to develop their own robust, efficient, and equitable local markets – rather than relying on the global food market -- can help ensure that everyone has the nutrition they need.

Ken Banks

Organization: FrontlineSMS

What it does: FrontlineSMS turns any laptop and mobile phone into a mobile command center for sending and receiving information. Without needing to be connected to the internet (or even an external power source), the program allows anyone with a computer to send mass messages via SMS and collect and categorize responses.

Why it’s important: In the first year of being publicly available, the tool has allowed relief and aid workers to collect and disseminate vital emergency relief information far more quickly and effectively than ever before. As more and more low-income individuals adopt mobile phones, the tool could have impact for local political organizing, identifying market prices, and more.

Molly Day & Kunal Modi

Organization: campusCatalyst

What it does: campusCatalyst helps teams of students learn about nonprofit management consulting by giving them a chance to perform consulting services for local nonprofit organizations.

Why it’s important: Today’s college students tend to be interested in how social value can come from both the for-profit and non-profit sectors, but they face a paucity of programs that teach undergraduates fundraising, accounting, team management and other essential nonprofit management skills. As a result, students committed to social justice often leave university struggling for hard-to-find nonprofit jobs or alternately, pushed into the business world without a clear sense of how to extend their social impact. campusCatalyst has the potential to prepare a generation of leaders to break down this false dichotomy.

Sam Goldman

Organization: d. Light Design

What it does: d. Light Design is working to replace all kerosene lamps in the world by 2017, providing the 1.6 million households without access to electricity or quality light at night with affordable, environmental lighting solutions.

Why it’s important: Increased productivity and improved education opportunities are only a few of the known positive consequences of providing the poorest of the poor with access to quality nighttime light and electrical sources. Design focused on the "bottom of the pyramid" is essential for ensuring that technological advancement doesn’t pass by those who need it most.

Priya Haji & Robert Chatwani

Organization: World of Good, Inc.

What it does: With the backing of eBay, World of Good is trying to help bring fair trade crafts from impoverished communities around the world direct to your living room. With third party nonprofits acting to verify that all products sold on the site meet high standards of environmental and community impact, the site is trying to make world friendly consumption easier than ever before.

Why it’s important: Perhaps the major barrier for people to purchase ethically produced goods is convenience. At the same time, producers and sellers of fair trade and other earth-friendly products have a hard time connecting with dispersed consumers. By bringing together thousands of sellers, buyers and producers in one space, however, World of Good has the potential to significantly increase the number of consumers using their purchasing power to improve the world.