Reading through some business blogs made by fellow UBC students I found one called “Fun Times With Business” by Antoine Chopin. His blog “Coursera: another example of social entrepreneurship” caught my interesting because it examined a social entreprise that did not have to do with “helping the poor nor is it about supporting African agriculture” (A, Chopin, 2012). Most people think that to be a social entrepreneur one must be helping people who are struggling, but this is not true. A social entrepreneur tries to solve a community problem which Coursera does by providing free online university courses. The problem that this company solves is that there are many people who would like to get an education but do not have the financial funds to support them and therefore they provide education for free!

This company is a true social entreprise because it is a mission driven (giving people who wouldn’t normally have the chance, a higher level of education) organization developing a social product (free university level courses).

Social entreprises are a very important part of our society because, without them, a lot of social problems wouldn’t be solved. They are different from Charities because they are self sustained and do not require donations and therefore can have the possibility of being more successful.