You are about to meet 20 organizations that are in the business of changing expectations. They reshape reality - so that poor kids can attend college, so that people in the destitute corners of the world can get better health care, so that victims of human-rights abuses can be heard. Most of us see the world's most daunting problems as impossible challenges. But these groups see the world's problems as just . . . problems, ones that can be fixed with the right ideas and enough passion. And they see how the systems that produced those problems can be reinvented. So they get to work.

These groups and leaders are neither idealistic dreamers nor neo-hippie do-gooders. They are entrepreneurs in the truest sense of the word. They are adept at marshalling resources behind an idea, at creating organizations that operate both efficiently and effectively. They apply sound management tools and discipline, and they demand results.

They are the winners of our inaugural Social Capitalist Awards. Fast Company, with considerable assistance from Monitor Group, the global consulting firm, has spent months assessing entrepreneurship in the social sector. We have measured organizations' actual innovations and their impact. We have gauged their aspirations and their sustainability. This endeavor is the first to make these types of quantitative comparisons across a group of organizations with such diverse social missions and business structures.

Congratulations, you've got the job! But you can forget about a honeymoon. If you're lucky, you've got 60 days to prove you can fit in and perform.

Skip the PowerPoint. Forget the whiteboards and butcher paper. If you want to organize an off-site that is energetic and memorable -- an event that actually makes a difference -- then follow our seven-point guide.

Rayona Sharpnack is a teacher and a mentor to some of the most powerful women in some of the most important companies around. Her message: Don't worry so much about what you need to know. Instead, figure out who you need to be.

Internet Capital Group has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in companies that are looking to make their mark in e-commerce. John Hamm evaluates and advises the entrepreneurs who run those companies. Here are the character traits that he looks for. Do you have what it takes?

Whether you're sizing up an investment or a new hire, it's not enough to study the financials and the references. As due-diligence expert Barry Rhein will tell you, you've got to read between the lines.

You've come up with a radical plan that will transform the way your company does business. The next step: execute. But how? By reading, ripping, and leveraging Fast Company's startup manual for leading change.

The Freeplay Group, based in Cape Town, South Africa, builds products that capture the imagination of the world -- and that change the world.