Despite tremendous aid from governments and nongovernmental organizations, several social ills continue to plague humanity including devastating global poverty. Social entrepreneurs and venture philanthropists have risen to challenge, taking innovative approaches to solving these complex social problems. In doing so, they often turn to business principles and models–whether that means benchmarking the success of an anti-malarial bed net program or equipping developing world entrepreneurs with access to capital and markets. The more enlightened models not only use innovative business ideas to address social issues, but also take into account environmental concerns and how these also have a social impact.

When considering issues of blended value, I have chosen to categorize concepts, stories and trends according to whether they are driven primarily by financial, social, or environmental motives. Under the [people] category, you’ll find articles and commentary on social entrepreneurship, venture philanthropy, and microfinance, among others. Be sure to check out the [profit] and [planet] categories as well, since the concepts overlap. The 3Ps are just one possible organizing structure used for this blog.