Blog Post #11: The Power of Social Enterprise
” If the United Nations was fully funded why would we need the Arc or social enterprise?”

“If money could have changed the world, money would have changed the world.” (Sharad Vivek Sagar) The reason social enterprise is so important for society is because, no matter what society believes, money cannot solve all the world’s problems. Should the United Nations achieve an infinite supply of money, it would never be enough because just blindly dishing out aid to people in need does nothing. Instead, helping people to (proverbially) stand up on their own two feet will have a much greater and longer lasting impact. And that is what social enterprise is; it is a way for a company to profit while also benefitting the community and citizens around them. It has become commonplace for corporations to view social work as a cost, something that they must subtract from their bottom line. But social enterprise is a way of both bringing in profits and helping propel the world. Muhammad Yunus (pictured right), through his company Grameen Bank, gives people loans so that they can create their own businesses, a micro-financier in the purest sense. With only a small loan, he brought a world of change to thousands of people, and, in the process, made a profit. Had the UN been in this scenario, they would have probably only delayed the issue through their delivery of different types of aid. The UN would not have given these people the tools they need to survive and prosper on their own, instead just giving them the necessities for them to survive in the short-term. In its truest form, the difference between the UN and a social entrepreneur is that “…social entrepreneurs are not content just to give a fish or teach how to fish. They will not rest until they have revolutionized the fishing industry.” (Bill Drayton)
“Social Entrepreneurs: Pioneering Social Change.” YouTube. Skoll World Forum, 18 Feb. 2009. Web. 10 Nov. 2014.