What do we do?

The Foundation’s main activities include:

• Identifying 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.

The profiles of the selected social entrepreneurs can be searched and viewed online.

• Community building: Currently, over 150 social entrepreneurs form part of the Schwab Foundation community. They come from around the world and work in a wide range of sectors, but they have many challenges and characteristics in common. The Foundation fosters the peer-to-peer exchange of the social entrepreneurs and supports the replication of their methodologies among each other.

• Connecting social entrepreneurs: The Foundation supports the participation and active involvement of its selected social entrepreneurs at the regional and global meetings of the World Economic Forum. These meetings offer unique opportunities for social entrepreneurs to connect with corporate, political, academic, media and other leaders.

• Generating solutions in partnership: Social entrepreneurs participate in Forum initiatives, the conversations shaping the future agendas of industries, and are experts for the Forum’s Global Agenda Councils. The Foundation works with selected companies to advance specific activities of social entrepreneurs or initiatives that support social entrepreneurship (partners).

• The next generation of social entrepreneurs: The Foundation works with the Forum of Young Global Leaders to identify rising social entrepreneurs with a significant impact under the age of 40.

• Additional services: The Foundation works with Harvard University, Stanford University and INSEAD to provide scholarship opportunities to the best executive education courses in the field to the selected social entrepreneurs. The Foundation works closely with leading academic institutions to publish case studies on specific social entrepreneurs for incorporation in undergraduate and graduate level courses

The Foundation does not give grants or invest financially in the organizations of its selected social entrepreneurs.