What business entrepreneurs are to the economy, social entrepreneurs are to social change. They are, writes David Bornstein, the driven, creative individuals who question the status quo, exploit new opportunities, refuse to give up — and remake the world for the better.

How to Change the World tells the fascinating stories of these remarkable individuals — many in the United States, others in countries from Brazil to Hungary — providing an In Search of Excellence for the nonprofit sector. In America, one man, J.B. Schramm, has helped thousands of low-income high school students get into college. In South Africa, one woman, Veronica Khosa, developed a home-based care model for AIDS patients that changed government health polity. In Brazil, Fabio Rosa helped bring electricity to hundreds of thousands of remote rural residents. Another American, James Grant, is credited with saving 25 million lives by leading and "marketing" a global campaign for immunization. Yet another, Bill Drayton, created a pioneering foundation, Ashoka, that has funded and supported these social entrepreneurs and over a thousand like them.

These extraordinary stories highlight a massive transformation that is going largely unreported by the media: Around the world, the fastest-growing segment of society is the nonprofit sector, as millions of ordinary people — social entrepreneurs — are increasingly stepping in to solve the problems where governments and bureaucracies have failed. How to Change the World shows, as its title suggests, that with determination and innovation, even a single person can make a surprising difference. For anyone seeking to make a positive mark on the world, this will be both an inspiring readand an invaluable handbook.

"The inspiring portraits that emerge from his in-depth reporting on the environments in which individual programs evolved... certainly show these unstoppable entrepreneurs as extraordinarily savvy community development experts." Publishers Weekly

"The social entrepreneurs chronicled in this book are part of the vital generation of independent, creative leaders..." Bill Bradley

"...a book about hope, about courage, and about the power of those extraordinary men and women who change the world." Jeff Skoll, Founder and Chairman, Skoll Foundation; first president of eBay

"...Bornstein's book will touch the hearts and minds of many. I hope it will get the wide readership it deserves." Arminio Fraga, Former Governor of the Central Bank of Brazil

"Wonderfully hopeful and enlightening....The stories of these social entrepreneurs will inspire and encourage many people who seek to build a better world." Nelson Mandela

"The book is must reading for anyone who cares about building a more equitable, and therefore more stable, world." William J. Holstein, New York Times

"A fascinating book....Well-documented cases of grassroots entrepreneurial activities to tackle such diverse social problems as child abuse, disability, illiteracy, and environmental degradation give life to it." Business Week

Now published in more than twenty countries, David Bornstein's How to Change the World has become the bible for social entrepreneurship-in which men and women around the world are finding innovative solutions to a wide variety of social and economic problems. Whether delivering solar energy to Brazilian villagers, expanding work opportunities for disabled people across India, creating a network of home-care agencies to serve poor people with AIDS in South Africa, or bridging the college-access gap in the United States, social entrepreneurs are pioneering problem-solving models that will reshape the 21st century.

How to Change the World provides vivid profiles of many such individuals and what they have in common. The book is an In Search of Excellence for social initiatives, intertwining personal stories, anecdotes, and analysis. Readers will discover how one person can make an astonishing difference in the world.

The case studies in the book include Jody Williams, who won the Nobel Peace Prize for the international campaign against landmines she ran by e-mail from her Vermont home; Roberto Baggio, a 31-year old Brazilian who has established eighty computer schools in the slums of Brazil; and Diana Propper, who has used investment banking techniques to make American corporations responsive to environmental dangers.

The paperback edition will offer a new foreword by the author that shows how the concept of social entrepreneurship has expanded and unfolded over the last few years, including the Gates-Buffetts charitable partnership, the rise of Google, and the increased mainstream coverage of the subject. The book will also update the stories of individual social entrepreneurs that appeared in the cloth edition.

David Bornstein is a journalist who specializes in writing about social innovation. His first book, The Price of a Dream: The Story of the Grameen Bank was selected as a finalist for the New York Public Library Book Award for Excellence in Journalism. His articles have appeared in the Atlantic Monthly and the New York Times, and he co-wrote the PBS documentary To Our Credit. He lives in New York City.