Sorry for my delay in responding, Frédéric! But I agree with you... there seems to be a lot about education for social entrepreneurs, but not much on accelerators/incubators. Take care - and thanks for the suggestion!

Thanks Frédéric! There is now an accelerator group on Li nkedIn, but it doesn't focus specifically on social entrepreneurs.

Your question got me thinking about the difference in visions and goals between business entrepreneurs and social entrepreneurs, and that made me wonder if the idea of incubators are relevant or compatible with the idea of social entrepreneurship at all. Now, I am basing my following speculations on the assumption that these entrepreneurs already possess skills and/or talents that are applicable to their areas of interest:

If we were to think in terms of vision and goals, the social entrepreneur’s motivation is to engage in an activity that benefits society as a whole, while the business entrepreneur is to create wealth for its shareholders. One thing that I see in common with the two is that both go through processes of identifying needs in the social or business “market-place” and finding ways to address those needs in ways that satisfy stakeholders. For the social entrepreneur who wants to make a difference in society there need not be an incubation period since a motivated individual can simply take immediate action to address some need that he/she has identified - e.g. engage in simple activities such as collecting blankets for the homeless, marshalling like-minded others to volunteer their time and services in the community to teach adults how to read, to more ambitious projects.

I look at the work that former President Jimmy Carter does with Habitat for Humanity, Angelina Jolie’s work on behalf of poor women, etc as evidence of how one’s talents, skills and resources can affect the reach of social entrepreneurship. Perhaps the “incubator” is in the social entrepreneur’s own head as he/she hatches a plan and applies available resources to actualize the vision? It is sobering to think that a social entrepreneur can generate more “business” or quantifiable action in literally a few minutes by posting his/her vision/goal/objectives, etc., On YouTube, while a business entrepreneur might take years to show positive (profit driven) results… I wonder if the question might be, instead, “How do we create and/or nurture social entrepreneurs?”

I found the attached article interesting..

Thanks for your comment Ruth! Interesting article too... My experience of a series of accelerator programmes for social entrepreneurs suggests that they really do need - and benefit - from some form of acceleration/incubation. Several key things they appreciated from the 'for-profit' side of entrepreneurship included the focus on a long-term business model, rather than the project-oriented model that is so common among charities and NGOs. Also the 'bottom line' thinking of for-profits, where there is a much tougher focus on achieving the value the organisation exists to create (even if this is social value). These are the some of the reflections of the social entrepreneurs...

Wow, I've just learned what the little arrows do!