Social Entrepreneurs

The Importance of Social Entrepreneurship
Social entrepreneurs drive social innovation and transformation in various fields including education, health, environment and enterprise development. They pursue poverty alleviation goals with entrepreneurial zeal, business methods and the courage to innovate and overcome traditional practices. A social entrepreneur, similar to a business entrepreneur, builds strong and sustainable organizations, which are either set up as not-for-profits or for-profit companies. 

Social entrepreneurship has quietly become a movement, particularly with the recognition of Muhammad Yunus, pioneer of the microfinance idea, with the Peace Nobel Prize in 2006. Companies are increasingly seeing social entrepreneurs and their organizations as ideal partners to reach new client groups at the “base of the pyramid”. They find that working with social entrepreneurs is a pragmatic and effective way to demonstrate their corporate citizenship.

Since 2000, the World Economic Forum has been promoting the powerful models developed by the world’s leading social entrepreneurs in close collaboration with the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship. Social entrepreneurs are invited to actively participate in the regional meetings of the World Economic Forum as well as the Annual Meetings. They participate in Forum initiatives, the conversations shaping the future agendas of industries, and are experts for the Forum’s Global Agenda Councils.

The Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship
The Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship is a not-for-profit, independent organization, founded in 1998 by Klaus Schwab and his wife Hilde, with the purpose of promoting social entrepreneurship as an important catalyst for societal innovation and progress.

The mission of the Foundation is to provide unique platforms at the regional and global levels in close collaboration with the World Economic Forum for leading social innovators that highlight social entrepreneurship as a key element to address social and ecological problems.

A Community of the World’s Leading Social Entrepreneurs
Over the past eight years, the Foundation has been selecting 20-30 social entrepreneurs annually from around the world into its network of leading social entrepreneurs. The social entrepreneurs are selected from more than 1000 candidates that apply every year either to a national Social Entrepreneur of the Year competition or directly to a regional selection of the Foundation.

See the profiles of the social entrepreneurs in the Schwab Foundation community.

The selected social entrepreneurs are invited to regional meetings of the Forum and benefit from a series of services the Foundation offers. A select group of “Schwab Fellows of the World Economic Forum” are invited to the Annual Meetings in Davos.

Social Entrepreneur of the Year
The Schwab Foundation works with media and corporate partners in more than 20 countries to search and select the most acomplished social entrepreneurs in the country every year. An eminent national jury then elects “The Social Entrepreneur of the Year”.

The main criteria for selection are
1. Innovation: The candidate has transformed traditional practice through an innovative product, service, approach, or a more rigorous application of known technologies and ideas.
2. Sustainability: The organisation is achieving some degree of financial self-sustainability through revenues or is engaged in creating mutually beneficial partnerships with business and/or the public sector.
3. Direct social impact: The candidate implements the initiative directly with poor or marginalised beneficiaries. Impact manifests itself in quantifiable results. 

Candidates from countries without a dedicated selection process are considered through regional selection processes.

Highlighting Social Entrepreneurs
The Foundation highlights the regional “Social Entrepreneur of the Year” winners at a plenary session during the respective regional meeting of the Forum.

Generating Solutions
The Foundation ensures that the voice of social entrepreneurs is incorporated in the Global Agenda Councils where they can contribute to solving the world’s most pressing problems around climate change, water crisis, health care systems failure, education challenges, malnutrition etc. Social Entrepreneurs also explore best practices around how they can best scale and grow their innovative models.

Contact Information
For more information, please contact info@schwabfound.org