Achieving Social Transformation through Entrepreneurship

Summary

In 2006, the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship committed to invest $10 million over five years to search, select, and celebrate accomplished entrepreneurs who have applied their creativity and passion to find practical, innovative and replicable solutions to major challenges of poverty and environmental destruction.
Since 2007, the Schwab Foundation has established 32 partnerships with leading media companies in 32 countries and has showcased the stories of leading national and international social innovators to stimulate interest in the practice of social entrepreneurship and inspire others to connect market initiatives with positive social change.
In collaboration with its major partners, the Boston Consulting Group, Ernst & Young and Folha de Sao Paulo, select entrepreneurs have received financial support to attend events of the World Economic Forum and were supported in their efforts to expand their impact from one region to another and to form partnerships with large corporations.

Approach

The Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship will invest $10 Million over the next 5 years:
– To showcase the innovative solutions created and implemented by social entrepreneurs to leaders of global companies and governments, fostering partnerships among them to achieve greater scale and impact.
– To disseminate the stories and accomplishments of social entrepreneurs through partnerships with leading media groups around the world, so that others may be inspired and learn from their examples.
– To build a community of accomplished social entrepreneurs, leveraging their initiatives, and supporting replication of their innovative solutions to other contexts with similar challenges.

Background

The Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship was created in 1998 by Klaus Schwab, founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum, and his wife Hilde. The Schwabs focused on social entrepreneurship because, in the words of Klaus Schwab, ‘While it is fine to advocate for social change at the macro level, we want to find people who have discovered practical solutions to social problems at the local level, innovative solutions that have been shown to work to transform people’s lives and that can be adapted to solve similar problems all around the world. I want to create a way to disseminate their accomplishments so others can support them or emulate their approaches.’ The Foundation is based in Geneva, Switzerland, and identifies and disseminates initiatives in social entrepreneurship that provide innovative and sustainable solutions to social and ecological problems around the world. The Foundation is independent from but closely cooperates with the World Economic Forum and provides its network of accomplished social entrepreneurs with multiple year-round opportunities to engage at the national, regional and global levels with leaders of governments, industry, academia and the media. In six years of activity, the Foundation has mobilized over US$ 90 million investment to strengthen and expand the work of the social entrepreneurs in its community, which today is comprised of just over 100 members

Progress Update

Since September 2006, the Schwab Foundation has screened 1,400 social entrepreneurs from countries around the world, conducted 120 due diligence site visits to assess the work of the most salient entrepreneurs and selected 20 of them to the community of accomplished social entrepreneurs.
– The Foundation has established 32 partnerships with leading media companies in 32 countries. Stories of leading national and international social innovators are showcased, stimulating interest in the practice of social entrepreneurship and inspiring others to connect market initiatives with positive social change.
– The Schwab Foundation and the WEF have worked together to include social entrepreneurs, alongside business and political figures, as contributors to panels on key topics concerning enterprise development, education health, environment, housing, and addressing specific population groups.
January 2007
Bringing together Leading social entrepreneurs who have created, implemented and scaled creative, pragmatic solutions to social, economic and environmental challenges, The 6th Social Entrepreneurs Summit is expected to be launched on January 21st.
The objectives of the Summit are:
– To continue to build the community of accomplished social entrepreneurs by creating opportunities for them to learn from one another and identify areas where mutual collaboration can increase the effectiveness of their respective efforts
– To provide an environment where current and potential investors as well as those involved in business, public policy, academia and media can engage with social entrepreneurs to:
– be briefed on the specific areas of work social entrepreneurs undertake
– learn how social entrepreneurs are creating new markets, or providing different and more relevant products and services where markets and the public sector have been unable to deliver them. Europe

Partnership Opportunities

The Foundation seeks additional partners at the country and regional level who are interested in working together to further identify and support entrepreneurial efforts with a public purpose