Giving Compass' Take: 

• Victoria Greene highlights five successful social entrepreneurs who share their advice on the important aspects of starting a social enterprise and each provides articles, talks, or interviews that have helpful insight on specific issues in the field. 

Should nonprofits adopt social entrepreneurship models to bring about effective change? How can donors support social enterprises? 

• Read about how social entrepreneurs can improve their philanthropic efforts through partnerships.


If you’re setting out to create your social enterprise for the first time, or even the second or third, it’s worth getting as much advice as you can beforehand. We’ve highlighted five useful insights from individuals who have been there, done that, and want to share their knowledge with you.

  1. Joanne Sonenshine, founder & CEO Connective Impact: Partnership in social enterprise: how to find the right partners and further your impact. Joanne Sonenshine is CEO of Connective Impact, a group that helps other organizations with the aim of solving complex problems from all over the world, including climate change, agriculture, and poverty alleviation.
  2. Eve Blossom, Co-founder & COO at WE’VE: Seeking a Sense of Place Eve Blossom is a designer, architect and social entrepreneur. She is a co-founder of WE’VE BUILT, a for-profit venture that creates stable jobs for potential victims of human trafficking by connecting artisans with designers to create modern products.
  3. Will Russell, founder of Will Russell Marketing: Turn email subscribers into impact makers  Will Russell is a digital marketer based in California and is the founder of Will Russell Marketing. His company works to help social enterprises and non-profit organizations leverage marketing to increase expand their influence in their field.
  4. Ido Leffler, founder of Yes to Carrots: How To Get A Product Into 25,000 Stores  Ido Leffler is the founder of Yes to Carrots, a cosmetics company whose products are made of 95% natural ingredients.
  5. Tony Xu, CEO of DoorDash: Q&A With DoorDash CEO on New Initiative to End Hunger and Waste in American Cities  This restaurant delivery service founded in 2013. While it might not sound like a social enterprise on the face of it, DoorDash recently launched Project Dash, an initiative aimed at reducing hunger and food waste across the nation.

Read the full article about insights from social entrepreneurs by Victoria Greene at Causeartist.