Social impact entrepreneurs want to change the world. Using the principles of entrepreneurship, like innovation and industry disruption, these people bring new ideas, products, and services to the market. Unlike traditional entrepreneurs, however, social impact entrepreneurs prioritize goals like improving education, healthcare, gender equality, and human rights! Here are 13 social impact entrepreneurs you should know about:
| # | Social Entrepreneur |
|---|---|
| 1 | Bill Drayton |
| 2 | Shiza Shahid |
| 3 | Audrey Cheng |
| 4 | Maysoun Odeh Gangat |
| 5 | Xavier Helgesen, Christopher Fuchs, Jeff Kurtzman, and David Murphy |
| 6 | Marc Koska |
| 7 | Veronica Colondam |
| 8 | Hannah Davis |
| 9 | Paul Bain + family |
| 10 | Jeroo Billimoria |
| 11 | Monica Meltis |
| 12 | Paul Rice |
| 13 | Michael Sunbola |
#1. Bill Drayton
Bill Drayton coined the term “social entrepreneurship” in the 1980s. He’s since cemented his place as a social impact entrepreneur through his work in business and as the founder/chairman of Ashoka, a nonprofit that promotes social entrepreneurship. With its Ashoka Fellows programs, Ashoka funds the work of changemakers across the world. Drayton comes from a long line of people interested in social impact; both sides of his family worked for abolition and women’s rights. He believes social entrepreneurs are essential to seeing new opportunities, turning visions into realistic ideas, and then turning those ideas into patterns that change society.
#2. Shiza Shahid
Shiza Shahid is a social impact entrepreneur from Pakistan. She earned a full-tuition scholarship to Stanford where she studied business. Concerned about Pakistani girls who couldn’t get an education, Shahid took action by co-founding the Malala Fund with Malala Yousafzai. In 2019, she continued her entrepreneurship by founding Our Place, a kitchen essentials company, and Now Ventures (inactive), an angel fund that invested in women-founded startups. Women-founded startups receive much less investment than ones owned by men. Our Place is best known for the Always Pan, which is free from toxic PTFE and PFAS.
#3. Audrey Cheng
Audrey Cheng studied journalism and global health with the intent of becoming a journalist, but after connecting with Chicago’s startup industry, she changed course. In 2014, while working for a venture capital firm in Kenya, she noticed a gap between what schools were teaching computer science students and what companies needed. At only 21 years old, she founded the Moringa School, which provides African students with digital and professional skills training. In 2016, Cheng was named one of Africa’s top five women innovators by the World Economic Forum. By 2030, the Moringa School hopes to train over 200,000 workers. Courses focus on topics like software engineering, mobile app development, data science, and DevOps engineering.
#4. Maysoun Odeh Gangat
Maysoun Odeh Gangat is a Palestinian social impact entrepreneur and founder of 96 NISAA FM, the first commercial Arabic language women’s radio station. According to Gangat’s Ashoka Fellow profile (she’s been a fellow since 2012), the radio station also streams online for listeners in the MENA region and diaspora interested in improving gender equality and advancing women’s rights in the political, social, and economic spheres. The station hosts talk shows, entertainment, news, and investigative reporting. Gangat’s achievements include awards from the Palestinian Ministry of Women’s Affairs, a Synergos Fellowship, and membership in the Clinton Global Initiative.
#5. Xavier Helgesen, Christopher Fuchs, Jeff Kurtzman, and David Murphy – Better World Books
Xavier Helgesen, Christopher Fuchs, Jeff Kurtzman, and David Murphy are the social impact entrepreneurs behind Better World Books, an online bookstore selling used and new books. Launched as a book drive on the Notre Dame campus in 2002, the company is now a Certified B Corporation. Since its start, the bookshop has donated 38+ million books, raised $35+ million for libraries and literacy programs, and reused or recycled 475+ million books. Better World Books has continued to support Notre Dame, as well. In 2021, the corporation donated $10,000 to the Notre Dame Robinson Community Learning Center. The four founders appear to have moved to other companies and projects; Helgesen and Kurtzman are both described as “serial entrepreneurs.”
#6. Marc Koska
Marc Koska, OBE, is a social impact entrepreneur in the healthcare field. After realizing the harm from unsafe injections (according to a 1999 report, more than 1.3 million people died from unsafe practices every year), he invented the Auto-Disable syringe. These needles break after use, which means they can’t be reused and potentially hurt or kill people. They also come pre-filled. Koska spent two decades promoting these syringes through Safepoint Trust, a charity. In 2018, Koska founded ApiJect Systems, a medical technology company focused on making injectable medicines and vaccines safe and accessible for all.
#7. Veronica Colondam
Veronica Colondam is the founder of the YCAB Foundation in Indonesia, which is one of the few Asian organizations to get General Consultative status with the United Nations. Colondam has a double degree in communications and public relations and a long history with social entrepreneurship and impact investing. In addition to her work with YCAB, she’s an independent commissioner of the biggest state-owned microfinance company. YCAB’s work in education and inclusive financing impacts four million underprivileged youth and half a million women micro-entrepreneurs. According to Colondam’s Awardee profile on the Schwab Foundation, about 70% of YCAB’s graduates get jobs, while its female micro-entrepreneurs repay their loans at a rate of 98.4%.
#8. Hannah Davis
Hannah Davis is the founder of BANGS Shoes, a company that donates 20% of its net profits to entrepreneurs around the world. With a third-generation, family-owned manufacturer, BANGS strives to create ethical products based on the boots Davis saw farmers and workers wear while she taught English in China. After thinking about her business idea for years, Davis met a retired apparel executive, who became her mentor and helped her get the company off the ground. According to the BANGS website, the company has invested in over 5,700 entrepreneurs in 75 countries.
#9. Paul Bain + family
Paul Bain is the “Tea Captain” of JusTea, a farmer-direct tea company. After studying Africa in college, visiting several African countries, and working on different projects, Bain wanted to find the most sustainable way to support the communities he met. His father began to research and together, father and son learned that while Kenya was the largest exporter of tea in the world, many farmers earned very little. In 2012, Bain and his father went to Kenya to build partnerships with local farmers. Today, JusTea is the only company selling farmer-direct tea from Kenya. According to its website, over 80% of the employees are women. Through JusTea, Paul Bain and his family strive to create new economic opportunities, pay high wages, and reinvest in the communities that produce the company’s organic tea. The company is a member of the Fair Trade Federation.
#10. Jeroo Billimoria
Jeroo Billimoria is a social worker, a social impact entrepreneur, and founder of Childline India, a 24-hour emergency hotline for India’s street children. When kids call the number, they can access police help and healthcare. Founded in 1995, the hotline has responded to millions of calls. While current numbers aren’t available, UNICEF estimated that 11 million Indian kids lived on the streets in 1994, which made the phone service essential. In 2004, Billimoria became the Executive Director of Child Helpline International, a help desk for various child helpline services in 150 countries. Billimoria has set up other organizations that help children, and she’s been an Ashoka Fellow since 1998. She’s also been recognized by the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship and received a financial grant with the Skoll Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship Award.
#11. Monica Meltis
Monica Meltis is the founder and executive director of Data Civica, an organization using data to connect communities, authorities, journalists, and others responding to violence in Mexico. As a young person, Meltis grew interested in politics and earned a scholarship to study political science at one of Mexico’s top universities. According to her Ashoka Fellow profile, the forced disappearance of 43 students in 2014 changed Meltis’ life. She began organizing support for the families of the victims, which revealed technological and data challenges. She founded Data Civica to help stakeholders better understand problems in Mexico and develop more productive solutions. Data Civica describes itself as a feminist organization fighting gender-based violence and femicide, supporting victims of human rights violations, and bridging gaps in data and technology use.
#12. Paul Rice
Paul Rice is the founder of Fair Trade USA, the leading third-party certifier of Fair Trade products in North America. At 22 years old, Rice bought a one-way ticket to Nicaragua to work with farmers. He got involved in fair trade by helping 24 small coffee farmers get a raise from only 10 cents per pound of beans to $1. Rice also helped launch the first organic certification program for farmers in the Nicaraguan mountains. Since those early days, Fair Trade USA has partnered with 1,400 companies on coffee, tea, cocoa, sugar, coconut, fish, fresh produce, home goods, and apparel certifications, according to the World Economic Forum. Rice is a four-time winner of Fast Company magazine’s Social Capitalist of the Year and a recipient of the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship. He’s also been an Ashoka Fellow since 2001.
#13. Michael Sunbola
Michael Sunbola is the founder of Lagos Food Bank, a nonprofit nutrition initiative solving malnutrition by helping pregnant women and infants from rural communities. It has 9 active programs, hundreds of NGO and corporate partners, and a reach in 160 communities. According to the bank’s team page, Sunbola has led the charge in reaching over 1.6 million people and building relationships with corporations, community organizations, and other leaders. The issue of food security is personal; according to his Ashoka profile, Sunbola often went to school hungry. At age 6, he started foraging for fruit and working at a sawmill to support himself. He’s won several awards for his work and was elected to be an Ashoka Fellow in 2023.