Philanthropy: Meet the Hard-Nosed Do-Gooders

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Enter a different breed of M.B.A.: social entrepreneurs like Priya Haji, 35, Siddharth Sanghvi, 30, and David Guendelman, 28, who last year founded the giftware company World of Good. A for-profit, socially responsible start-up that makes grants to a nonprofit sister organization, World of Good has impressed venture capitalists who usually put their money into the latest technological innovation. But the business plan put forward by the Berkeley M.B.A.s--which won this year's Global Social Venture Competition--has VCs convinced that there's also money to be made from handmade silk scarves, woven bags, beaded jewelry and "nonviolent" leather products (the cow must die of natural causes). The business "can help thousands and thousands of communities," says Haji. And within a year, it was in the black. Says Duke's Dees: "Business doesn't know better than the nonprofit world. It just provides another set of tools that we should look at using for social good. And we should use any tools we can."