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The Great Convergence: When Business Meets Social Impact
In the midst of our 24-hour news cycle focused on conflict and catastrophe, a profound transformation has been quietly reshaping our world. Social entrepreneurship-the fusion of business principles with social impact-has emerged as perhaps the 21st century's most significant yet underreported story. This movement, which author Jason Haber calls "The Great Convergence," is changing everything from how we shop to how we invest to how we define success itself.
The Business of Good has garnered praise from luminaries across sectors. Gail Sheehy described it as a "wild ride" capturing today's social entrepreneur spirit, while Frank Sesno commended Haber for showcasing how Millennials are innovatively merging social good with professional success. The book breaks important ground as the first comprehensive examination of why businesses increasingly aim to profit while transforming the world-a trend that shows no signs of slowing down.
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The Birth of a Movement: How Global Crises Sparked Social Innovation
The new millennium began with unprecedented prosperity-unemployment at 4.1%, stock markets at all-time highs, and America enjoying unrivaled global dominance. The "Making Money Now" phenomenon had transformed culture since Netscape's 1995 IPO launched the dotcom era. By December 31, 1999, as celebrations marked the new millennium worldwide, few realized how dramatically things would soon change.
The optimism quickly evaporated as the decade unfolded between two recessions. Despite the Dow Jones opening at 9,605 on September 11, 2001, and closing at exactly the same figure eight years later, the intervening period was catastrophic. The decade saw 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, genocide in Darfur, climate change opening Arctic shipping lanes, insurgencies in Iraq and Afghanistan, and a housing crisis. By December 31, 2009, the stock market had lost 1,000 points from a decade earlier, trillions in wealth had vanished, and unemployment approached 10%.
Simultaneously, Web 2.0 emerged from the dotcom crash, transforming internet users from passive browsers to active content creators. This shift birthed social media, which rapidly became America's most popular online activity by 2007, surpassing even pornography. While radio took 38 years to reach 50 million users and television 13 years, the internet accomplished this in just 4 years. Facebook added 200 million users in 2013 alone.
The stark contrast between the 1999 and 2009 Iranian student protests illustrates this transformation perfectly. In 1999, Tehran University students protested peacefully after the government shut down a reformist newspaper. Despite brutal government repression, the world largely ignored them-the uprising remained buried on page A3 of The New York Times while Brandi Chastain's World Cup celebration made the front page.
Ten years later, when Iranian students protested again, the world's response was dramatically different. Twitter hashtags like #iranelection spread news globally, while users organized protests and documented government violence in real-time. When the service planned maintenance during the uprising, the U.S. State Department formally requested a delay to keep information flowing. Facebook became a hub for international support, with the "Where's My Vote?" group connecting protesters directly with global supporters.
This intersection of a troubled world with increasingly interconnected communication systems created what Haber calls "The Great Convergence"-a zeitgeist shift that opened the door for social entrepreneurship to flourish.
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Capitalism 2.0: Merging Profit with Purpose
American capitalism has been a powerful economic engine since the Industrial Revolution. By the early 20th century, the United States had transformed from a small producer into a global powerhouse. Yet for all its strengths, traditional capitalism has left many behind, with inequality reaching levels not seen in a century. Now, a new form of capitalism is emerging-one that merges profit with purpose, where companies succeed because they serve a larger mission.
Supermarkets perfectly exemplify both American capitalism's strengths and weaknesses. The first opened in Queens in 1930 during the Depression, pioneered by entrepreneur Michael Cullen. These stores helped create a vibrant middle class through affordable goods and became powerful symbols of American prosperity during the Cold War. Yet supermarkets, like casinos, are designed to maximize profits through psychological manipulation-oversized carts encourage more purchases, produce sections at entrances make shoppers feel virtuous before buying junk food, and even the music is played at a beat slower than the human heartbeat to keep customers lingering.
Social entrepreneurship defies simple definition, existing "in the space where the private sector won't go and government can't go," as CUNY Professor Thomas Lyons puts it. At its core, social entrepreneurs are change agents tackling significant societal problems through pattern-breaking ideas. While entrepreneurs pursue profit by serving markets efficiently, social entrepreneurs balance a triple bottom line of people, planet, and profit.
Today's social entrepreneurs share a unique alchemy Haber calls the HAD IT attitude: Hope, Audacity, Disappointment, Ingenuity, and Tenacity. They've HAD IT with unsolved problems, ineffective models, and naysayers who see no alternatives.
Hope: Social entrepreneurs are extraordinarily hopeful, aiming to solve not just problems but their underlying causes.
Audacity: "We got this," says Millennial Maggie Doyne about global problems. This audacity drives social entrepreneurs to believe they can impact millions of lives.
Disappointment: Whether addressing climate change, poverty, or human trafficking, social entrepreneurs inherit problems not of their making and channel this disappointment into motivation.
Ingenuity: Social entrepreneurs view the poor as a market where innovative goods and services can benefit both parties.
Tenacity: "This is hard work," says d.light co-founder Sam Goldman. Social entrepreneurs persist because "they truly believe that they will succeed in spite of messages to the contrary."
This evolution has created a new paradigm where making money and driving change happen simultaneously. Impact investing is central to Capitalism 2.0, rejecting the binary choice between financial returns and social impact. The Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN) has built market infrastructure for this growing sector, with their survey finding 91% of investors saw financial returns meeting or exceeding expectations, while 98% reported social impact meeting or exceeding goals.
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Challenging the Charity Industrial Complex
Traditional charity models often fail to address root problems despite Americans donating over $358 billion annually (2.1% of GDP). The charity circuit has evolved into a self-aggrandizing affair benefiting donors more than recipients. High-society charity events with $5,000-$10,000 tickets have transformed from bastions of privilege into publicity campaigns for the wealthy. Board membership becomes a "second act" for the successful, while nonprofits struggle with low pay and minimal overhead.
The Charity Industrial Complex is built on three problematic pillars. First, it demands charities be "meek in overhead but mighty in intentions," forcing organizations to minimize essential operational investments. As Dan Pallotta noted in his TED Talk, this undermines causes by limiting marketing, branding and growth potential. Second, traditional charities rely on guilt-based appeals rather than positive engagement. Third, they reward giving without directly connecting donors to impact.
The roots of this approach trace back to America's founding. In 1630, John Winthrop delivered his "Model of Christian Charity" sermon to Puritans sailing to Massachusetts Bay Colony, establishing charity as salvation for the wealthy rather than those in need. This philosophy-that charity exists primarily as penance for profit-making-has handicapped American charitable efforts for 350 years.
Handouts often worsen the problems they aim to solve. In 2010, marketer Jason Sadler's campaign to collect and distribute one million T-shirts to Africa exemplified "SWEDOW" (Stuff We Don't Want). Such donations flood local markets with free goods, undercutting local entrepreneurs and decreasing economic activity. Similarly, the NFL's practice of donating Super Bowl "losing team" merchandise to developing countries harms local merchants by artificially inflating supply.
Social entrepreneurs are disrupting this model through organizations like charity: water, founded by former NYC nightclub promoter Scott Harrison. After witnessing extreme poverty while volunteering with Mercy Ships in Africa, Harrison revolutionized the charity field through radical transparency, powerful storytelling, and a unique two-bank-account model that guarantees 100% of donations go directly to water projects while separate donors fund operations. Rather than using guilt, Harrison made giving "cool" with positive imagery and clear impact reporting.
Similarly, Becky Straw founded The Adventure Project after realizing communities desperately needed both functioning water wells and employment opportunities. Her organization operates on the principle that "what people want most in this world is the opportunity to thrive. Not with handouts, but by using their own two hands." In five years, they've created nearly 800 jobs impacting over 1 million people across India, Uganda, Kenya, and Haiti.
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The Bottom of the Pyramid: Serving the World's Largest Untapped Market
The Bottom of the Pyramid (BoP) represents the four billion people earning less than $1,500 annually-the largest untapped market on earth worth an estimated $5 trillion. Rather than viewing the world's poor as objects of pity, social entrepreneurs see them as valuable consumers. This perspective shift began with FDR's 1932 "Forgotten Man" speech and gained momentum through C.K. Prahalad's game-changing book that Bill Gates called "an intriguing blueprint for how to fight poverty with profitability."
In 1974 Bangladesh, amid devastating famine that would claim two million lives, economics professor Muhammad Yunus met Sufia Begum, a young woman trapped by a predatory 10% daily interest loan of just 25 cents. Recognizing this poverty trap, Yunus lent $27 to local women to make bamboo stools, allowing them to sell at fair market prices. When banks refused to serve the poor, Yunus created Grameen Bank with revolutionary principles: no collateral requirements, focusing on women borrowers, and minimal paperwork. Today, Grameen serves 7 million borrowers (97% women) with a $1.1 billion portfolio and just 2% default rate-outperforming most traditional banks.
Major corporations have recognized the potential of emerging markets, with Unilever deriving nearly 60% of its sales from these regions. Marketing to this demographic requires abandoning traditional approaches. While Harvard's Neil Borden established the classic "four Ps" marketing mix (Promote, price, product, place), Prahalad developed the "four As" for the BoP: awareness, access, affordable, available.
Sam Goldman's journey to create d.light began after witnessing a neighbor's child suffer severe burns from a kerosene accident in Benin. At Stanford, he partnered with Ned Tozun to create affordable solar lanterns for the two billion people relying on dangerous kerosene lighting. Despite needing to create both product and category from scratch, d.light's solar lanterns provided immediate, visible benefits to users. Perfect timing with falling prices for LEDs, solar panels, and batteries helped d.light grow to serve 51 million customers across 60 countries, saving customers $1.8 billion and preventing 4 million tons of carbon monoxide emissions.
Rebecca van Bergen founded Nest to empower artisans globally, connecting them directly to luxury markets without middlemen. Starting in a St. Louis coffee shop in 2006, van Bergen built Nest to provide business training, infrastructure upgrades, and market connections. Nest artisans earn 120% above local minimum wages, with 89% being women who reinvest in their communities. Each artisan's success impacts 17 others, potentially changing 2 million lives by decade's end.
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The Kickstarters: Modern Philanthropists Driving Social Innovation
Today's philanthropic leaders follow Andrew Carnegie's example but with greater focus on results and direct involvement. These "Kickstarters" don't just write checks-they invest, consult, and collaborate with entrepreneurs to solve global problems, expecting measurable outcomes rather than just feeling good about giving.
We live in a global gilded age where the richest 85 people possess wealth equal to the poorest 3.5 billion. Traditional charity, despite generating over $350 billion annually, hasn't solved fundamental problems. Critics like Peter Buffett call much philanthropy "conscience laundering." Today's philanthropists are redefining giving by acting as stakeholders rather than just donors.
Bill Gates predicts the near-elimination of poor countries by 2035 through innovation and education. The Gates Foundation, with its $42 billion endowment exceeding the GDP of 70% of nations, represents the most powerful philanthropic force in history. Beyond traditional grants, they take equity stakes in solutions and apply business principles to social problems. Melinda Gates emphasizes their Microsoft-like approach: measuring results, making changes, and replicating successful models.
Echoing Green selects just 40 fellows from over 3,000 annual applicants-a 1.3% acceptance rate. Since 1987, they've invested over $40 million in nearly 700 social entrepreneurs across 60+ countries, launching organizations like Teach for America and One Acre Fund. Their venture capital approach focuses as much on the "jockey" as the "horse"-they invest in people as much as ideas.
Bill Drayton, founder of Ashoka and the man who coined the term "social entrepreneurship," has built the granddaddy of all Kickstarters since 1980. Ashoka has supported over 3,000 fellows across 63 countries through rigorous selection based on five criteria: a knockout idea, creativity, entrepreneurial quality, potential for social impact, and ethical fiber. Drayton believes "Anyone can do this...you have to give yourself permission to see a problem and then...find a solution."
Tech billionaires who made their fortunes before turning 40 have become powerful forces in social entrepreneurship. Jeff Skoll, eBay's first president, deployed his wealth through a triple threat: the Skoll Foundation, which has invested $500 million in over 100 ventures across five continents; Participant Media, which produces socially conscious films like "An Inconvenient Truth"; and the Skoll Global Threats Fund, addressing climate change and other existential challenges.
Steve and Jean Case are revolutionizing philanthropy through their foundation built on three pillars: civic engagement, entrepreneurship, and philanthropic innovation. Declaring "Philanthropy 1.0 hasn't worked well enough," they embrace experimentation and smart risk-taking. The foundation pioneered grant challenges that led to Challenge.gov, which has hosted over 450 competitions awarding $150 million in prizes.
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One for One and One for All: Business Models That Scale Impact
Social entrepreneurship carries forward the civil rights movement's legacy, embodying Martin Luther King Jr.'s "fierce urgency of now" as entrepreneurs seek solutions to problems both domestic and global. The movement operates through both for-profit businesses using consumer markets and nonprofits developing innovative programming.
TOMS eyewear delivers free eyewear, eye exams, and medical treatment to those in need. The company has expanded its social impact through multiple product lines: TOMS Roasting Company provides a week's clean water per coffee purchase; TOMS Bags funds safe birthing materials and training; and TOMS StandUp Backpacks support anti-bullying programs in the U.S.
Warby Parker achieved "unicorn status" within five years by challenging Luxottica's near-monopoly (80% market control) of the eyewear industry. Rather than competing directly, Warby designs and sells everything in-house, offering stylish glasses under $100 while supporting VisionSpring. Unlike the flawed donation model where only 7% of donated glasses are reusable (at $20 per item), Warby funds training for locals to conduct eye exams and sell affordable glasses. This approach creates jobs, respects dignity through consumer choice, and proves social entrepreneurship can succeed against entrenched market players.
Gunnar Lovelace co-founded Thrive Market in 2014 to tackle America's diabetes and obesity epidemic. The online marketplace challenges fast food's dominance by addressing its three advantages: price, geography, and education. Thrive operates on a membership model ($59.95/year) similar to Costco, but with a crucial difference-for every paid membership, they donate one to a family in need. Members access healthy foods at 25-50% below retail prices, with nationwide two-day delivery eliminating geographic barriers.
Gerald Chertavian could have retired comfortably after selling his company for $83 million in 1999. Instead, he founded Year Up to bridge America's opportunity divide-connecting 6 million disconnected urban youth with corporations facing a shortage of 14 million qualified workers. Unlike traditional job training programs, Year Up's innovative model requires participants to sign non-negotiable contracts. Students receive stipends while completing five months of classroom training followed by six-month corporate internships. The program charges corporate partners placement fees, creating accountability since "Year Up's solvency depends upon our interns doing well."
Not everyone needs to start a social enterprise. Social intrapreneurship applies entrepreneurial principles within established corporations to create social impact while leveraging existing resources. M-Pesa exemplifies this approach. Created by Nick Hughes and Susie Lonie within Vodafone/Safaricom, this mobile money system has transformed Kenya's economy-43% of Kenya's GDP now flows through M-Pesa. By bringing banking to the poor via mobile phones, M-Pesa has expanded financial inclusion from 20% to 72% among those living on less than $1.25/day.
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Rise of the Millennials: The Generation Driving Social Change
De Tocqueville's observations about America in 1831-a nation characterized by hard work, fairness, collaboration, optimism, and entrepreneurial spirit-could easily describe today's Millennials, born between 1980-2000. This generation, the first to mature during The Great Convergence, has returned to America's entrepreneurial roots after decades of more traditional career paths.
Unlike previous generations who followed a prescribed life path (college, career advancement, then philanthropy in later years), Millennials refuse to wait to make a difference. Just as they don't wait for taxis (using Uber) or emails (preferring texts), they reject the notion that social impact must come after career success. Their impatience has disrupted traditional norms about youth and career progression.
Everything is about the moment for Millennials. This on-demand generation, emboldened by technology and molded by world events, refuses to wait to make a difference. A 2014 study found 94% of Millennials want to apply their skills to benefit causes, with over half wishing their employers offered more giving-back programs. Unlike 1960s activism focused on disengagement (boycotts), Millennials prefer "buycotts"-using their consumer power to make statements.
The Great Convergence has shaped Millennials with six distinctive traits that fuel their central role in social entrepreneurship: Collaborative, Achievers, Entrepreneurial, Sheltered, Accessible, Responsible (CAESAR).
Millennials thrive in collaborative environments, having been raised in households emphasizing equal relationships and co-decision making. As Achievers, they're the best-educated generation since the GI Bill recipients. Their Entrepreneurial spirit is remarkable-55% want to start businesses, with only 13% interested in climbing corporate ladders. The Sheltered trait reflects their protected upbringing with constant supervision. Being Accessible means they've never known life without the internet, making them early technology adopters who expect seamless connectivity everywhere. As Responsible individuals, they're correcting the excesses of Boomer narcissism and impatience, maintaining strong relationships with parents (85% name a parent as a best friend), and making healthier choices.
Maggie Doyne exemplifies the Millennial spirit through her extraordinary journey from New Jersey teenager to guardian of 51 Nepalese children. During a gap year before college, Doyne encountered child refugees from Nepal's civil war while backpacking in India. Moved by their suffering, she used her $5,000 in babysitting savings to buy land in Surkhet, Nepal, establishing what would become the Kopila Valley Children's Home and School.
Comparing Millennials to the Greatest Generation may seem ambitious, but the parallels are striking. Both generations inherited uncertain, violent worlds from their predecessors, yet maintained faith in a better future. Just as President Roosevelt declared of the Greatest Generation that "this generation of Americans has a rendezvous with destiny," so too can it be said of Millennials.
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Embracing Failure: Learning from Setbacks in Social Innovation
Despite many entrepreneurs' aversion to discussing failure, understanding and embracing it is essential for growth. As Jonathan Lewis of Cafe Impact notes, unlike airplane crashes that are thoroughly investigated to prevent future accidents, failed social enterprises rarely receive post-mortems that could benefit the sector.
The famous NASA phrase "Failure is not an option" from Apollo 13 is often misunderstood. While the ground crew refused to accept defeat when bringing three astronauts home from a crippled spacecraft, NASA's success actually depended on learning from previous failures. Three years before Apollo 13, astronauts Grissom, White and Chaffee perished in the Apollo 1 fire. This tragedy led to Gene Kranz's "Tough and Competent" dictum that transformed NASA's culture. The subsequent safety improvements directly saved Apollo 13 from disaster.
The public holds government programs to different standards than private ventures. While 95% of private companies fail without much fanfare, government program failures become front-page scandals. This creates a death spiral where fear of failure leads to governmental inertia and lack of innovation.
In 2012, New York City launched an innovative experiment: America's first Social Impact Bond (SIB). Goldman Sachs invested $9.6 million in a recidivism-reduction program at Rikers Island, with the agreement that they would recover their investment only if recidivism dropped by at least 10%. After three years, the program was discontinued when evaluation showed it wasn't working. Surprisingly, instead of criticism, the project received accolades for its transparency and accountability.
Despite this setback, interest in Social Impact Bonds has only grown. Goldman Sachs embraced the lessons learned and expanded their SIB portfolio with programs in Utah, Chicago, and Massachusetts. The Utah SIB delivered its first success in October 2015, with data showing at-risk kindergarten pupils avoiding special education services, saving the state $281,550 in the first year.
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The Pale Blue Dot: Our Shared Future
In September 2000, an unprecedented gathering occurred-100 heads of state, 47 heads of government, and thousands of delegates convened for the Millennium Summit. This assembly adopted the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to be achieved by 2015. Despite initial skepticism about their ambitious nature, the MDGs produced remarkable results: extreme poverty in developing countries dropped from 47% to 14%, child mortality decreased by 50%, and maternal mortality declined by 45%. Social entrepreneurs played a crucial role in this success by offering scalable solutions rather than mere charity.
Social entrepreneurship transcends political ideology and religion, offering our best chance for a prosperous future. The author draws a parallel to Star Trek's famous Kobayashi Maru simulation-a supposedly unwinnable test that only James Kirk ever passed by reprogramming the simulation itself. Like Kirk, social entrepreneurs refuse to accept no-win scenarios, instead changing the rules through original thinking.
The famous "Pale Blue Dot" photograph taken by Voyager 1 in 1990 shows Earth as a tiny speck from 3.7 billion miles away. As Carl Sagan noted in his profound meditation on this image, Earth contains all human history, joy, suffering, and achievement on "a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam." This perspective underscores our responsibility to protect our only home.
Social entrepreneurship represents our best-perhaps last-chance for a brighter future on this pale blue dot. Through the Great Convergence of global awareness, technological connectivity, and entrepreneurial innovation, we have unprecedented opportunities to address humanity's most pressing challenges. As Mother Teresa wisely observed: "Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin."
