Social Entrepreneur Spotlight: Chris Eigeland
The ability to recognize a need for change and to instigate it is at the heart of social entrepreneurship, but how does a potential entrepreneur succeed when faced with the often conflicting worlds of social activism and wealth creation? The term ‘entrepreneurship’ originating from the original French economics term meaning to ‘undertake’ has evolved into a word insinuating wealth creation, using the market to estimate value. Social entrepreneurship, in contrast, places value on the social mission and while the market must be utilized to succeed, social entrepreneurs must remain mission-driven and carefully choose the market in which they operate.
GO Campaign’s Chris Eigeland realized the need for change when he started at Brisbane’s Griffith University. That change was the establishment of a volunteer program for its students; a platform that Chris became president of after noticing a desire from Griffith students to volunteer locally, nationally and globally. After heading the student Volunteer program, Chris continued to discover and execute systems to help his Brisbane community, such as Ourstories.com.au, a virtual platform to bring attention to individual stories of misfortune that arose during the Brisbane floods of early 2011. The platform now is utilized to spread awareness of a national anti-suicide campaign, and has many other opportunities to act as a catalyst and bring a more personal side to not-for-profit organisations.
Chris was not only awarded the 2011 Prime Minister’s Australia Asia Award, but also represented Australian youth at the World Model United Nations in The Hague as well as the Japan APEC. Japanese social entrepreneur and author Hiroshi Tasaka describes such work as ‘contributing to the world and helping people no matter how small their projects are,’ and that such people receive ‘invisible rewards’. But what are the ‘invisible rewards’ of social entrepreneurship and do they really motivate young social entrepreneurs to succeed? How often are social entrepreneurs faced with the difficulties of the conflict between mission-driven work and pushing through the market- for example: receiving subsidies, donations and volunteers?
Restating the central purpose of social entrepreneurship is central to analyzing the difficulties faced by such a mission. Even though the language of the industry is relatively new (the term ‘social entrepreneurship’ evolved in the 1960s and 70s in literature on social change), the act of mission-driven work has been present throughout history. As the language changes and evolves, and more awareness is brought to institutions and practices for effective philanthropy, the desire to implement social change will continue to thrive. In turn, it will develop complexities that contribute to the philosophy of social entrepreneurship.
Written by: Meg Ellis
