Top Moments in Social Entrepreneurship – With a Network Lens

Written by Heather McLeod Grant on Monday, February 1st, 2010
Filed under News

We found this article by Nathaniel Whittemore on Change.org, as reposted on SSIR’s blog, very interesting. It captures highlights of the past decade with respect to the rise of Social Entrepreneurship and Social Innovation – two topics we at the Monitor Institute care very much about. Of particular note are several of these key tipping points which relate to networks, new technologies, or movement building within the SE field. In particular, we note:

The advent of the Stanford Social Innovation Review as a journal, and now website and online community providing connective tissue for knowledge sharing across the field (Katherine Fulton and I both serve on their advisory board).
The launch of the Social Innovation Fund, which creates a new networked model for government, working as a partner with nonprofits, foundations and borrowing best practices from the private sector.
Social Capital Markets conference, where we’ve spoken and shared our research on the rise of impact investing
The iPhone, which is facilitating mobile connectivity, and furthering both network mindset and action among social activists. It signifies many of the new technologies driving the creation of networks that we’ve written about here.
The importance of the Jeff Skoll and Pierre Omidyar’s philanthropy in creating new models of giving for the field, influenced by their experience at eBay and a more network-centric approach to grant-making

For the complete list and commentary, here’s the original post.