New Titles: Director of social entrepreneurship programs, United Negro College Fund

Organization: United Negro College Fund

Job held by: Tiffany Singleton

Why the job was created: Michael L. Lomax, president of the charity, has grown more involved with and intrigued by social entrepreneurship over the past decade, particularly those projects that seek creative solutions to educating children and young people. (He serves on the boards of KIPP Academies, New Profit, and Teach for America.)

He sees parallels between the current social-entrepreneurship movement and the creation of civil-rights advocacy groups like the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in the 1960s.

“Not enough kids of color know about social entrepreneurship, and they’re not pursuing it as actively as they should,” he says.

How the charity was able to create the job in tough times: The new position was established with help from Harvard Business School and the Walton Family Foundation; Walton has given a $1.08-million grant for the job and its accompanying programs.

Duties: To oversee the United Negro College Fund’s social-entrepreneurship programs, conduct research, and help drive the fund’s efforts to raise awareness of the need for more social entrepreneurs who are members of the groups they seek to help. Programs will include a fellowship — which Ms. Singleton designed before she was hired — to enable college students to work with social entrepreneurs who seek to improve elementary and secondary education.

Background of the new director: Ms. Singleton, 28, who earned a master’s degree in business administration last month from Harvard Business School, takes on her new role this month. She previously spent five years employed in the asset-management division of the financial services giant J.P. Morgan Chase, working in the company’s New York and Houston offices. She graduated from Dillard University — where she was student-body president — in 2002, receiving a bachelor’s degree in economics and finance.