Social Entrepreneurs and Catalytic Change

In the past few years, U.S. society has witnessed the proliferation of an increasing number of initiatives that have extensively used the media to capture public attention about an issue of social concern in the hope that social action and changes in public policy would ensue. Examples include Hands Across America's efforts to raise money for and awareness about the problem of hunger and homelessness in the United States, the Partnership for a Drug-Free America's ad campaign to change public attitudes toward drug abuse, Earth Day 1990's re-emphasis on environmentalism, and The Business Enterprise Trust's attempts to improve corporate social performance by seeking out and publicizing good corporate citizenship. Each of these initiatives was headed by an individual that we call a catalytic social entrepreneur. A brief description will highlight the roles that catalytic social entrepreneurs played in the Partnership for a Drug-Free America and Hands Across America.