What if the passion and enthusiasm of entrepreneurs could be harnessed to address societal issues, such as climate change, homelessness and unemployment? A rising wave of "social entrepreneurs" is starting to do just that by designing their for-profit businesses around making positive contributions to the communities that they serve.

Earlier this year the RBC Social Finance initiative set out to explore the characteristics of social entrepreneurs to better understand what makes them successful and assess their ability to balance the pursuit of financial and non-financial goals.

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