Social Entrepreneurship is a business concept that places public good over corporate profits. A lot of businesses have been founded on social entrepreneurship ideals in recent years
TOMS is a well known company founded by Blake Mycoskie that donates a pair of shoes with every pair that’s bought. Jacqueline Novogratz founded Acumen, which provides “patient capital” to small businesses in third world countries.
These people and many others have done a lot of good in the world, and probably the greatest virtue of social entrepreneurship is its sense of being part of something larger than oneself.
But as I have pointed out in the past, there is nothing new under the sun.
Social entrepreneurship is just a modern twist on ancient Judeo-Christian tradition: work hard, take care of your family, tithe.
Ah, tithing. giving one tenth of one’s income to charity, an almost forgotten concept. A shame, really, because it is good for the soul and very good karma, if you are from the eastern tradition.
If you are salaried the math is easy, 1/10th of your take home pay is a tithe. If you are self employed income can be a little trickier to figure out. I suggest that you use your Adjusted Gross Income in your most recent tax return as a basis.
Not quite there? Maybe you are only giving 3% or 4%? That’s okay, you can build up. An easy way is commit to increasing your giving by 1% in a given time frame, maybe even as long as a year. Then increase it by another 1%. And another 1%.
Intent and thoughtfulness go along way. Give it a try. The worst that can happen is you make the world better.
And for those who really make some shekels, if your name is Rockefeller, Carnegie, Getty or Gates, you can spend the latter part of your life dedicated to philanthropy.
That sounds like fun.