While the extraordinary industrial and technological innovations of recent decades have led to many breakthroughs, they have also left us to confront an uncertain future. With real threats of environmental and economic collapse, terrible diseases, overpopulation and poverty, we have much to overcome. Our best hope for the future of humanity lies in the power and effectiveness of socially motivated, highly empowered individuals who fight for changes in the way we live, think and behave. This article puts forward a view of social entrepreneurship as a process that catalyzes social change and addresses important social needs in a way that is not dominated by direct financial benefits for the entrepreneurs. Social entrepreneurship is seen as differing from other forms of entrepreneurship in the relatively higher priority given to promoting social value and development verses capturing economic value.