DC Plexus Fractal April Meeting
Tuesday April 14 6:30-9:00pm
Bethesda-Chevy Chase Regional Services Center, Conference Room A
4805 Edgemoor Lane - 2nd Floor Bethesda, Maryland 20814
(across from Red Line Metro Bethesda)
See Location/Directions
There is no fee to attend this evening and everyone is welcome!
Social Entrepreneurship: New models for transformational change
We’ve had some great conversations lately about disruptive innovation and taking ideas to scale. This month, we’ll explore another framwork for transformational change: social entrepreneurship.
A social entrepreneur identifies and solves social problems on a large scale. Just as business entrepreneurs create and transform whole industries, social entrepreneurs act as the change agents for society, seizing opportunities others miss in order to improve systems, invent and disseminate new approaches and advance sustainable solutions that create social value. Unlike traditional business entrepreneurs, social entrepreneurs primarily seek to generate "social value" rather than profits. And unlike the majority of non-profit organizations, their work is targeted not only towards immediate, small-scale effects, but sweeping, long-term change. There have been some interesting developments emerging around the idea of social entrepreneurship including social venture funds and new hybrid ’social business’ models. Concepts emerging from the study of complexity may have significant application to understanding and developing these new enterprises.
"Social entrepreneurs identify resources where people only see problems. They view the villagers as the solution, not the passive beneficiary. They begin with the assumption of competence and unleash resources in the communities they’re serving." David Bornstein, author of How to Change the World: Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Ideas
Join us April 14 for a lively conversation about social entrepreneurship with our guest, Darin McKeever, a senior program officer on the policy and government affairs team of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, where he leads the foundation’s charitable sector work. Darin serves as an ambassador for the foundation within the charitable community - managing the foundation’s relationships and grants with associations, advocacy organizations, and research institutions with interests in philanthropy and the nonprofit sector as a whole. Darin also monitors policy developments affecting the sector for the foundation.
Prior to joining the foundation, Darin was the executive director and co-founder of Heads Up, a Washington, DC-based provider of academic and enrichment programs which help young people develop the skills, confidence, and relationships to succeed in school and to pursue lives that help further social change. For his efforts launching and leading the organization, Darin was awarded the Echoing Green and Stride Rite Community Service Fellowship. Darin is an alumnus of Harvard College, where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a degree in Social Studies. He recently received his MPA as a Catherine B. Reynolds Foundation Fellow in Social Entrepreneurship at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.
Posted: April 3rd, 2009 under Meetings.
Comments: none