"The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small," President Barack Obama said at his inauguration, "but whether it works."

We believe the government's ability to foster social innovation and entrepreneurship will be crucial to maximizing the use of our resources and determining, finally, what works and what does not.

In 2007, Louisiana founded the country's first Office of Social Entrepreneurship with the goal of making the state a hospitable place for those testing and launching the most effective new program models for social change. On the heels of hurricanes Katrina and Rita — when governments were criticized for their slow response but social entrepreneurs mobilized and acted quickly to save lives — we learned firsthand why supporting social entrepreneurship is an important and effective way to confront problems.

Social entrepreneurship combines business principles with a passion for social impact and demonstrates three core characteristics: social innovation, accountability and sustainability. It is the recognition that we need the public, private and nonprofit sectors working together to educate our children, feed the hungry, generate energy, train our workforce, create more jobs and tackle the myriad other issues.

Obama has pledged to create an Office of Social Innovation within the White House to give nonprofits support and access to funding. This office could also connect to state and local efforts, and thereby mobilize a new wave of government leaders who identify and support the most effective, efficient and sustainable solutions to pressing social problems.

An Office of Social Innovation should have the clout and visibility to make sure we're spending money the right way and to encourage and facilitate the work of social entrepreneurs. Just as the federal government backed small-business owners when it formed the Small Business Administration more than 50 years ago, the same commitment must be made to social entrepreneurs today.

The marriage between government leaders and social entrepreneurs is a natural one. Both are interested in finding efficient, effective and sustainable ways to solve difficult social problems, and they have complementary strengths to make goals a reality.

An Office of Social Innovation could lead the way in seeking public partnerships with foundations and corporations. It could help coordinate volunteer resources to scale solutions — a more deliberate and effective way to use Corporation for National and Community Service dollars. And perhaps most importantly, it could set standards and publish results so we know what works and what doesn't, and people would know better which nonprofits and initiatives to fund.

Congress could consider allocating a small percentage of each agency's budget to encouraging social innovation. With charter schools, for example, a percentage of education funds are dedicated to trying new approaches, creating both successful and unsuccessful models of education reform that then inform systemic changes.

Social entrepreneurs work close to the people they serve. Their insight can give government an opportunity to take calculated risks, test ideas and better leverage tax dollars. Government's strength lies in its power to convene and connect social entrepreneurs to new sources of funding and other support. This public innovator model is working in Louisiana, where we are launching a social innovation business plan competition to identify and support the most effective models, and we are developing a public innovators workshop for government officials who provide direct services or fund social service providers.

Working together, government and social entrepreneurs can provide insight into social problems and spark innovation that results in solutions. Together, we can demonstrate that government can work with social innovators to create an effective approach to problem solving — a solution that's not necessarily bigger or smaller, just better.

Mitch Landrieu is lieutenant governor of Louisiana and served in the Louisiana legislature for 16 years representing New Orleans. Andrew Wolk is founder and CEO of Root Cause in Cambridge, Mass., a nonprofit that supports social innovators in solving social and economic problems.