Social Entrepreneurship for Laudato Si:

Pedagogies of Acceleration and Accompaniment

Keith Douglass Warner OFM
Miller Center for Social Entrepreneurship
Santa Clara University USA
Published in Educatio catholica, Anno IV/1, pages 151-162

Laudato Si proclaims a message of caring for creation to a universal audience. Everyone is

affected by our planet’s ecological distress, is responsible in some way, and can take positive
action.1 Laudato Si calls for dramatic change in society: the transformation of human identity
for an ecological era, the renewal of our collective moral consciousness, and the reorientation
of institutions and patterns of human behavior toward a more sustainable future. Laudato Si
presents a bold vision.
The encyclical was drafted concurrently with the United Nation’s Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs). Some have contrasted the SDGs with Laudato Si and found them
too cautious, narrow, and technocratic.2 Wolfgang Sachs suggests that the SDGs seek to
dramatically repair the existing global economic model, while Laudato Si calls for reimagining
and reinvigorating the moral dimension of humanity.3 Certainly these two documents are in
dialogue with each other, and their messages complement each other.
Social entrepreneurship is a broad and diverse practical social change movement that
deploys innovative business strategies to address a social justice mission, such as addressing
the needs of those living in poverty.4 Social entrepreneurs address social needs, using tools
from private enterprise, such as business model strategies, revenue diversification, rigorous
application of metrics, and investment.5 In the context of the many failures of, or perverse
outcomes from, government-led development projects, enterprise-led development holds
much promise.6 It represents a mid-level approach to social change, for it fosters local social
progress, but at a scale in between individuals and governments.
Social entrepreneurship offers a dynamic methodology for fulfilling the vision of
Laudato Si. Locally-embedded enterprises catalyze socio-economic relationships, providing
economically marginalized populations access to goods and services for their basic needs, but
also stimulating social agency and participation in community life. “Social enterprise
acceleration” provides a suite of capacity building services that help organizations achieve
their mission in society. Catholic universities that seek to promote justice can effectively
partner with the social enterprise movement to make concrete the vision of Laudato Si. This

1
For example, Laudato Si, in the English translation, uses “everyone” fourteen times.
2
Hickel, J., M. Kirk, and J. Brewer. "The pope v the UN: Who will save the world first." The Guardian: London,
UK.[Online]. Available: http://www. theguardian. com/global-development-professionalsnetwork/2015/jun/23/the-
pope-united-nations-encyclical-sdgs.[Last accessed: 28 September 2015] (2015).
3
Sachs, Wolfgang. "The Sustainable Development Goals and Laudato si’: varieties of Post-Development?" Third
World Quarterly 38, no. 12 (2017): 2573-2587.
4
Martin, Roger L., and Sally Osberg. Getting beyond better: How social entrepreneurship works. Harvard Business
Review Press, 2015.
5
Chahine, Teresa. Introduction to Social Entrepreneurship. CRC Press, 2016.
6
Yunus, Muhammad. Creating a world without poverty: Social business and the future of capitalism. Public Affairs,
2007.
essay describes how social entrepreneurship is able to fulfill the vision of Laudato Si and the
SDGs, and then presents examples of educational programs in service to the social enterprise
movement that have advanced the Catholic identity of a university.

Laudato Si’s proposal

The first three chapters of the encyclical provide a diagnostic of our current socio-
ecological problems, and present religious resources from the Catholic tradition to guide our
response. The last three chapters propose remedies. Chapter four presents “Integral Ecology”
as a new word for what might be considered an ancient Catholic philosophy of nature: human
beings are called to live in (ecologically-informed) relationships with each other and all of
creation. This chapter proposes a new form of human consciousness, or a new human self-
awareness, to re-orient ourselves toward actions that promote the common good. Chapter five
proposes a series of dialogues between institutions and organizations in society, at different
scales. These dialogues, in keeping with Pope Francis’ Ignatian formation, are discernment
activities oriented toward action, and the encyclical provides many concrete actions that could
be undertaken by governments, civil society organizations, economic institutions, and religious
groups. Chapter six describes educational and spirituality practices to foster ecological
consciousness,7 and provides an ecological interpretation of traditional Catholic theological
concepts and spiritual practices.
As with so many Catholic social teaching documents and encyclicals, the market and
market forces, and the power of the market, are treated as a kind of external corrupting force,
something that can and should be controlled through rational moral discourse and expressions
of collective social will. Certainly, many neo-liberal economists speak of markets as external
forces acting upon human society, much as does gravity. They also speak of markets as amoral
forces, governed loosely by national macro-economic policies. The Pope critiques this: “Once
more, we need to reject a magical conception of the market, which would suggest that
problems can be solved simply by an increase in the profits of companies or individuals”
(paragraph 190). Laudato Si critiques conventional capitalism for enabling so many of the
forces that harm our planet’s ecosystems. Its advocacy for institutional dialogue, ecological
education and spiritual praxes are more concrete and practical proposals than those provided
by prior encyclicals. However, a diagnosis of market failure or government failure is but an
initial stage of the change called for by Laudato Si. Chapter five proposes numerous positive
actions that can be taken, but as is so often the case for Catholic social teaching, national
governments and large institutions are presented as the primary actors with agency.8 Chapter
six offers educational and spirituality practices that individuals can take in their lives and those
of their families. A large lacuna between the family and national institutions provides an
opening for new expressions of human agency.

Social entrepreneurship as innovative methodology

7
Uhl, Christopher. Developing ecological consciousness: the end of separation. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers,
2013.
8
Paragraph 180 is an exception, offering concrete practices that can be done by community groups.

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 Social entrepreneurship is a worldwide movement using the tactics and strategies of
business organizations to achieve social and environmental goals. It emerged from the global
micro-finance movement, moving beyond the provision of small loans to the formation and
growth of business enterprises with social missions.9 Social innovation is a broad suite of
creative practices to achieve goals in society, while social entrepreneurship is a specific form of
social innovation that uses entrepreneurial organizations to pursue social goals.
Social enterprises measure their success not with profit but by how they impact society,
especially the lives of the poor. Social enterprises have fostered justice in certain regions of the
world by providing access to clean energy and drinking water, to gender-inclusive education
and health services, and to responsive markets for small farmers. The social entrepreneurship
movement is composed of entrepreneurs, their entrepreneurial organizations, and various
supportive actors, such as capacity development organizations and impact investors. Several
distinct features of social enterprises distinguish them from commercial enterprises and
conventional social service organizations:
 A social value proposition. This describes the value that the enterprise activity offers to
the poor and to society. This means an organization defines its mission not by what it is
or does (as do many mission statements), but rather the benefits it delivers to society,
through the lens of the poor as customers. It describes its problem solving activity. This
focuses the attention of the enterprise on the people it seeks to serve (and not on the
pursuit of private profit).
 A sustainable business plan. Nonprofit nongovernmental organizations generally start
with a social mission and then begin fundraising. Social enterprises begin by defining a
social problem as an entrepreneurial opportunity, and then creating a business plan,
one that articulates revenue, expenses, operations, distribution, and social impact
reporting. The business model is a key feature that distinguishes social enterprises from
most charity and advocacy organizations.
 Social impact assessment. Social entrepreneurs deploy systems of measuring the
benefits that their organizations provide to society. Social impact measurement is hard
to do but essential to justify claims of distinction between conventional and social
entrepreneurship. This holds the enterprise accountable for its change it seeks to effect
in the world.
Enterprise-led development transcends the more conventional forms of economic
development (government-led development, or international aid, or charity), and is
remarkably consistent with the “authentic development” paradigm advocated by the Catholic
Church over prior decades.10 Social enterprises are more responsive to the communities they
serve, in part because they charge for goods and services, albeit at a reduced price, to ensure
access for the economically marginalized. This avoids the problems of dependency that can
arise from charity, and but also stimulates the formation of local markets.
Because their goals and organization structures arise from and are embedded within
the communities they serve, social enterprises have the potential to succeed where large-

9
Yunus, Muhammad. Building social business: The new kind of capitalism that serves humanity's most pressing
needs. Public Affairs, 2011.
10
Sniegocki, John. Catholic social teaching and economic globalization. Marquette University Press. 2009.

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scale, externally originating projects fail. Gregory Dees, a pioneering scholar in this field,
proposed that “social entrepreneurs play the role of change agents in the social sector by:
 Adopting a mission to create and sustain social value (not just private value),
 Recognizing and relentlessly pursuing new opportunities to serve that mission,
 Engaging in a process of continuous innovation, adaptation, and learning,
 Acting boldly without being limited by resources currently in hand, and
 Exhibiting heightened accountability to the constituencies served and for the outcomes
created.”11
Dees’ definition has held up very well over the past two decades, despite the rapid evolution of
the social enterprise movement. Its components merit illustration in light of Laudato Si, as
illustrated with a specific example. Solar Sister is a social enterprise with a mission to eradicate
energy poverty by activating women’s social networks to bring clean energy to rural
communities in Africa. Solar Sister sells a range of clean energy technologies such as solar-
powered lanterns, solar lanterns that can charge mobile phones, and clean cookstoves. Its
social enterprise model of women-run direct sales networks enables women to become
entrepreneurs and to generate incomes for their families, often for the first time.12
Social entrepreneurs found and direct organizations that pursue social value, which
might be a synonym for the common good. The creation of social value means the provision of
goods and services necessary for the dignity of individuals and their families, but also for the
creation of stronger social relationships. Solar Sister sales agents sell solar micro-technologies
to other women, and this is frequently the first modern energy product ever for these
households. Solar lights provide superior quality light, and avoid the dangers posed by candles
and kerosene lanterns. Potential customers weigh the upfront one-time investment in a
technology with the avoided daily costs of crude energy sources. Solar Sister products provide
much more social value than light. With solar lanterns, students have a bright light to use for
their studies, and show significant improvement in their education. Families are freed from
breathing kerosene fumes, and no longer risk burns and home fires due to kerosene lamps.
Solar Sister customers report that the sustainable lighting sources allow them to extend the
hours for existing businesses, or to start new local businesses. Solar Sister sells clean,
sustainable energy sources that benefit families and provide a platform for local economic
development, but perhaps just as important, the women sales agents manifest a sense of new
sense of agency, and experience enhanced social status. Some report that their communities
now see them as “women who dare,” a label of admiration referring to female leaders who
undertake entrepreneurial risks and become familiar with modern technology. These women
are able to exercise their voice in local community affairs. Thus, Solar Sister is an example of a
social enterprise that addresses numerous SDGs, promotes education and health for children,
and fosters enhanced agency for women. It fulfills numerous social goals outlined in Laudato
Si, including local community solidarity, and the transition from dirty fossil fuels (i.e.,

11
Dees, J. G. "The meaning of social entrepreneurship.” Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship,
Duke University's Fuqua School of Business." (2001).
12
Information on Solar Sister is drawn from Gray, Leslie, Alaina Boyle and Victoria Yu. “Turning on the lights:
Transcending energy poverty through the power of women entrepreneurs.” Miller Center for Social
Entrepreneurship. 2017.

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kerosene) to more sustainable energy systems. Solar Sister now has 3000 sales agents and has
sold modern energy products that benefit one million customers. It bears noting that the
communities served by Solar Sister are undertaking the kind of energy transition called for by
Laudato Si (par. 165) more quickly than industrial economies.

Disrupting social sin through market creation

Skeptics view social entrepreneurship as merely businesses with a social purpose, but this
perspective disregards the true potential of this movement, which is the disruption of an unjust
social equilibrium.13 Effective social entrepreneurs spend considerable effort in understanding
and analyzing the root causes of social problems before they launch enterprises. They design
interventions that have the potential to address immediate needs through their enterprise, but
also can leverage broader change within a social system, or social structure. Social
entrepreneurs perceive the problems that emerge from government failure, market failure, or
unjust economic policies, but rather than engaging in advocacy for better government policies,
they launch enterprises that in turn create markets that provide access to goods and services. 14
They identify institutional failures but then take direct action themselves, and to demonstrate
that economic incentives can be aligned to foster a more just society.
Social entrepreneurs are not under the illusion that their own enterprises will be able to
fully solve the kinds of problems outlined by Laudato Si and the SDGs. However, their
enterprises, if successful, can demonstrate that market creation is possible and that social
problems are solvable. In numerous cases, social enterprises create markets that are attractive
to conventional companies to enter, or governments to support.15 This is how social
entrepreneurs exert their leverage: by demonstrating that socially inclusive markets can be
viable, and by motivating larger socio-economic institutions to act. This is how social
entrepreneurs disrupt an unjust social equilibrium.
These social enterprise strategies illustrate in a concrete way several concepts from
Catholic social thought. The notion of an unjust social equilibrium is consonant with the notion
of “structural sin,” meaning that the social structures in a society systematically disadvantage
the poor and vulnerable, perpetuating injustice. Social entrepreneurs, without using
theological language, attack structural sin. The direct action of social entrepreneurs,
accountable to local customers and stakeholders, exemplifies the principle of solidarity. The
notion of economic organizations acting locally to create more inclusive social relations
illustrates the principle of subsidiarity. Our discussion now turns to several examples that
illustrate how social enterprises use these strategies to fulfill the vision of Laudato Si.
Access to safe drinking water is highlighted in Laudato Si (par. 30) and SDG 6. Jibu is a
drinking water social enterprise that has launched 200 franchises in four East African countries.
Jibu recruits and trains beginning entrepreneurs, providing them with filtration systems, re-
usable household water bottles, start-up capital, and a package of tools to launch a franchise
(employee manuals, marketing materials, financial tools). With its ultra-filtration technology,

13
Martin and Osberg. Getting Beyond Better. Op cit.
14
Elkington, John, and Pamela Hartigan. The power of unreasonable people: How social entrepreneurs create
markets that change the world. Harvard Business Press, 2008.
15
Martin and Osberg. Getting Beyond Better. Op cit.

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Jibu franchises are able to sell subscriptions to clean water for less than the price of fuel to boil
water at home. Jibu’s franchise strategy is based on high customer volume, and has been
highly successful in urban areas, including informal settlements (but is not economically viable
in rural regions). Jibu is only five years old, but has sold (at a very low price) more than 46
million liters of clean water. Hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent on water projects
across Africa that have worked for a few years, only to fail due to unavailable parts to repair the
technology, or lack of community engagement. In contrast, Jibu combines frugal technology
with community outreach, and the modest prices foster customer loyalty. This allows the
franchisee to repay initial investors, and to continue to expand the network of franchises.
Iluméxico was founded by Mexican engineering students to address the energy needs
of marginalized communities. Iluméxico identifies rural communities – many of them
composed of Indigenous peoples -- without access to the electrical grid, and then sells solar
home systems, made economically accessible by microfinance plans. Larger versions of these
systems are sold to rural schools, health clinics, and community centers. To complement these
sales, this enterprise devotes staff and resources to social development programs, such as
technical training, environmental education, financial literacy and women’s capacity
development. Iluméxico’s business model draws income from customer sales, but also from
national and regional government funding for regional economic development. It approaches
those without modern energy as potential customers, and believes that requiring payment
from these customers, even if the price is subsidized, is important for fostering dignity and self-
respect. From one perspective, Iluméxico is a business installing solar energy technologies, but
it measures its success by how many people can access clean, sustainable energy, and how
their lives are improved. Iluméxico sees clean energy as a platform for advancing sustainable
rural development and human dignity.
Small farmers are predicted to be most severely impacted by climate disruption, which
threatens to drive even more of them into poverty, or to migrate to urban slums. The founder
of Farmerline was an engineering student who had grown up on a farm in Ghana and witnessed
firsthand the social and economic impact of rural isolation. He founded a social enterprise
using mobile phone technologies, including voicemail for the illiterate, to provide useful
messages to remote farmers. These messages provide agronomic, weather, and market
information, which help farmers grow and sell their crops. Thus, Farmerline targets some of
the most vulnerable communities, and uses innovative technologies to help them develop
economic resilience in the face of market and climate vulnerabilities.

Pedagogies of acceleration and accompaniment

Miller Center for Social Entrepreneurship is the most successful university-based social
enterprise accelerator. It has provided capacity-development acceleration services to more
than 900 social enterprises working in more than 60 countries. Its parent institution, Santa
Clara University, aspires to blend the social ethos of its Jesuit Catholic tradition with the
innovation and entrepreneurship of Silicon Valley, where it is located. The university created
Miller Center to advance the distinct Jesuit social mission of the university, and to connect the
social entrepreneurship movement to the its academic community. Miller Center’s documents
of reference (providing foundational guidance) are the UN Sustainable Development Goals,
Laudato Si, and the university’s strategic plan.

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 Miller Center is not a conventional academic unit, and thus does not offer academic
majors or degrees. Its flagship program, the Global Social Benefit Institute (GSBI®),
accelerates social enterprises. Acceleration is a suite of services to help social enterprises grow
and enhance their impact on the poor, and functions as a semi-formal, non-academic
professional development program for entrepreneurs.16 In GSBI social entrepreneurs create a
more robust articulation of their social impact model (theory of change) and their business
model. More advanced social entrepreneurs learn how to lead their organizations in
operational excellence, and how to prepare their enterprise for investment of various types. In
2003, the founders of GSBI had observed many valuable technological innovations that could
advance the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, but were failing to do so for lack
of an effective delivery organization. Almost all GSBI social enterprises have been recruited
from Asia, Africa, or Latin America.
GSBI identifies high-potential social entrepreneurs and then provides a structured
curriculum with customized mentoring by experienced Silicon Valley executives. GSBI’s
pedagogy is based on accompaniment, of walking with and co-learning with social enterprises.
The four examples of social enterprises above are all graduates of GSBI. Social enterprises that
have graduated from GSBI have raised more than $580 million in investment, and positively
impacted more than 250 million people.
Miller Center’s approach stems from in part from the Ignatian tradition of humanistic
spirituality and education.17 The faculty who founded GSBI did not explicitly reference this
tradition of humanistic education, but they were in influenced by their decades of (cumulative)
experience teaching at a Jesuit university, and its pedagogical culture. These educational
values have shaped Miller Center and GSBI.
Fundamental to GSBI’s effectiveness is the customized involvement of a cadre of
volunteer mentors, all with significant Silicon Valley professional experience. After selecting
social enterprises for its program, GSBI staff match them with executive mentors (volunteer
executive coaches). These mentors provide a combination of an entrepreneurial mindset that
fosters rapid innovation and growth, agile responsiveness to customer/market needs, and a
willingness to learn from failure. Through dialog, they personalize the curriculum for the
entrepreneur, drawing from their Silicon Valley experience as they work through learning
modules. Mentors do not give advice so much as ask the right questions to help the social
entrepreneur lead his or her organization on a successful path, in other words,
accompaniment. GSBI, as an arm of the university, bridges the expertise of Silicon Valley with
the needs of the global social enterprise movement. GSBI, having accompanied more than 800
social enterprises over 15 years, embodies in a very concrete way the mission of a Jesuit
Catholic university.18

16
Lieberman, Andrew, Pamela Roussos and Keith Douglass Warner OFM. “The GSBI methodology for social
entrepreneurship: Lessons from 12 years of capacity development with 365 social enterprises.” Miller Center for
Social Entrepreneurship. 2015.
17
Modras, Ronald E. Ignatian humanism: A dynamic spirituality for the 21st century. Loyola Press. 2004.
18
Warner OFM, Keith Douglass, Andrew Lieberman and Pamela Roussos. “Ignatian Pedagogy for Social
Entrepreneurship: Twelve Years Helping 500 Social and Environmental Entrepreneurs Validates the GSBI
Methodology.” Journal of Technology Management & Innovation. 11 (2016):1, 80-85.

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 Miller Center hosts the Global Social Benefit Fellowship, which mentors undergraduate
students in action research with a GSBI social enterprise. The fellowship lasts nine months,
spanning the spring quarter of the third year to fall quarter of the fourth year. The spring
quarter consists of an intensive course on global social entrepreneurship as a social change
strategy, and on designing the summer action research project. Fellows then spend seven
weeks in the developing world with the social enterprise conducting research. The fall quarter
course is a research seminar to facilitate the completion of research projects for the host social
enterprise. The program emphasizes self-knowledge and vocational discernment throughout.
Thus through their action research projects, 120 fellows have provided practical intellectual
products for their host enterprises, while they have been challenged to imagine how they
might be able to work on behalf of the common good by the example of their host enterprise.19
All the social enterprises described above have hosted teams of fellows, who benefit from the
intellectual resources of the university, while the hosts in turn provide a global learning
experience for students.
Catholic universities in the United States typically promote their distinct identity
through campus ministry, student life programs, and religious studies class requirements.20 In
contrast, the Global Social Benefit Fellowship provides professional development
opportunities for students to work directly with social enterprises, and then mentors them
through a series of vocational discernment activities, using Laudato Si to frame the needs of
society and to challenge the students to pursue careers for the common good. Over the past
six years, the fellowship program has provided a stronger collaboration between the campus
and the social enterprise movement as faculty have mentored them. Thus, students are able to
locate their own contributions to their host social enterprise within Laudato Si, but also to
exercise their vocational imagination in light of the encyclical. The campus community is then
able to accompany social entrepreneurs vicariously through them.
Catholic religious orders have expressed interest in social entrepreneurship as a
strategy to foster social justice. Unlike most social justice advocacy practiced by Catholic
institutions over the past generation which has critiqued governments and multinational
corporations, social entrepreneurship fosters direct action. Social enterprises create markets
which foster social justice. Miller Center has sponsored 6 Jesuits in Residence, who have
apprenticed its social entrepreneurship methodology. These Jesuits have returned to inner city
USA, China, and the continent of Africa to create and implement acceleration programs. Miller
Center is in dialogue with the Jesuit Conference of Africa and Madagascar to co-sponsor a
social entrepreneurship initiative across the continent. Recently, leadership in some Catholic
sisters’ groups have expressed interest in a partnership.
Several other universities have begun their own social enterprise accelerators, adapting
the GSBI methodology for their own parent institutions. Others are developing action research
programs to engage students in practical learning about social entrepreneurship. Interest is

19
Warner OFM, Keith Douglass. “Action Research for Social Entrepreneurship Education.” Miller Center for Social
Entrepreneurship. 2017.
20
Morey, Melanie M., and John J. Piderit. Catholic higher education: A culture in crisis. Oxford University Press,
2006.

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disproportionately higher among Catholic universities, and Miller Center has developed the
GSBI Network to more effectively share its expertise.

Conclusion: Laudato Si’s vocational invitation

Social entrepreneurship provides tools and strategies to respond to Laudato Si. The
worldwide social entrepreneurship movement demonstrates concretely pathways to a just and
sustainable economy. Catholic universities that want to respond to the call of Laudato Si can
accelerate social enterprises and accompany those in the social enterprise movement.
Providing acceleration to social enterprises, or creating opportunities for students to conduct
practical research in their service, provides Catholic universities an opportunity to concretize
their distinct missions in service of society.