6 Social Entrepreneurship Examples in Action

When looking for social entrepreneurship examples you need to look toward companies that are tackling tough social issues by sustainable means. Social entrepreneurs innovate and transform fields such as environment, health, education, and enterprise. Similar to business entrepreneurs, social entrepreneurs focus on building a strong and sustainable organization in either nonprofit or for-profit industries.

In this post we will highlight some social entrepreneurship examples that we pulled from the Schwab Foundation’s 2015 Social Entrepreneur of the Year Awards.

Six Social Entrepreneurship Examples

Rosanna Haggerty and Becky Kanis Margiotta of www.cmtysolutions.org
Social entrepreneurs Rosanna Haggerty and Becky Kanis Margiotta of www.cmtysolutions.org  were recognized for their efforts in securing shelter for homeless individuals. From 2010 to 2014, their organization, Community Solutions, successfully moved more than one hundred thousand homeless people into permanent housing.

Mark Koska, Founder of SafePoint Trust
Mark Koska, Founder of SafePoint Trust, was recognized for his efforts making 4 billion safe injections possible in 40 countries. Koska invented an an auto-disable syringe that becomes physically unusable after being used one time. This promotes safe injections and prevents the spread of disease through sharing needles. Koska also created a non-profit called The SafePoint Trust in 2006 which has made strides in boosting safe injections to the top of the minds of international health professionals.

Amina Slaoui, President of Group AMH
Amina Slaoui, President of Group AMH, was recognized for her contributions to offering rehabilitation services to low-income individuals. Through Group AMH insurance, low income patients, which make up 70% of all patients, have been able to get 20-70% discounts on rehabilitation services. The 30% of people who have the means to pay are the ones helping the organization to achieve financial stability. Groupe AMH’s Noor Centre for Re-education in Casablanca offers rehabilitative services to up to 1400 patients a year, including physiotherapy, speech, occupational and psychotherapy, as well as fitting of prostheses and wheelchairs.

Elaine Montegriffo, CEO of SecondBrite
Elaine Montegriffo, CEO of SecondBrite, was recognized for providing fresh, nutritious food to over 120,000 people in need across Australia. Her organization accomplished this through rescuing food that would otherwise be headed to a landfill, and redistributing the fresh food to those who need it. Her organization has also excelled at advocating an end to food insecurity. Through the process of rescuing food headed for landfills, not only is the organization helping hungry folks in need, it’s saving water, using less energy, and reducing pollution.

Catalina Escobar Restrepo, Chair of the Juan Felipe Gomez Escobar Foundation
Catalina Escobar Restrepo, Chair of the Juan Felipe Gomez Escobar Foundation, was recognized for her organization’s contributions to improving the quality of life for adolescent mothers and children living in extreme poverty. The foundation is based on saving the lives of babies with a high risk of mortality, and to educate teenage mothers on the options available to them as a young mother. The Foundation provides care in the following areas: physical health, mental health, emotional health, and provides assistance on helping young mothers achieve a sustainable income.

Katherine Lucey, Founder & CEO of Solar Sister
Katherine Lucey, Founder & CEO of Solar Sister, was recognized for her contributions to building sustainable businesses built on selling portable solar lamps. Using a combination of clean energy technologies, a network of women entrepreneurs work together to achieve this goal. Their efforts have not only led to energy reduction, it is credited with improving education for children, better indoor air quality, and the economic wellbeing of women.

For more information on social entrepreneurship, please see our blog post titled “What is social entrepreneurship.”