The daylong symposium was about “social entrepreneurship,” a relatively new idea in business education but a well-established phenomenon. The concept focuses on people who undertake innovations in the social sector\u201d\u201daddressing problems in society and advancing a particular social mission to serve a larger good. We Christians have long had people who fulfilled this role\u201d\u201dindeed, they founded many of the institutions we now take for granted.<\/p>\n
I was struck by the response of one of the leaders when I asked about the origins of the social entrepreneurship movement. He said that while many of the most important social institutions in the United States were started out of faith-inspired motivation by churches and denominations, these organizations had lost their steam in the last few decades. Today, he said, much of the energy for social entrepreneurship is emerging in secular contexts.<\/p>\n
He mentioned faith-inspired organizations\u201d\u201dthe Salvation Army, Goodwill, hospitals and many colleges and universities that denominations founded in the 19th and early 20th centuries. But then he began talking about Teach for America, a secular organization that has emerged over the past decade and now has a significant scale and scope of mission.<\/p>\n