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WHAT IS IT & WHY MIGHT YOU THINK ABOUT IT?
Social enterprise is all about combining business with social justice, and using business and enterprise as a force for good and a way of making change. It is estimated that there are over 70,000 social enterprises in the UK, ranging from new start-ups at the grassroots through to large multi-million pound organisations with thousands of employees.
It is a diverse and exciting movement to be part of, and they change people’s lives in lots of different ways: through creating jobs; through preventing environmental waste; through reinvesting profits into community activity; through developing new services to help the most vulnerable. Well-known examplesof social enterprises include the Big Issue, Belu Water and Divine Chocolate.
Social enterprises exist in the space between traditional charity and mainstream business.
They are different from traditional charities in that they:
Make most of their money from selling products or services
Don’t rely on volunteering, grants or donations to survive
They are different from traditional businesses in that they:
Have a primary social mission or purpose similar to that which a charity may have
Don’t exist to maximise profit for shareholders
Don’t exist to make owners very wealthy Measure the social impact and difference they make
Social enterprises come in all sorts of types and forms (more on this later), but what connects them are these five characteristics:
They have a social mission written into their company
They make more than 50% of their money from trading
They reinvest or give away more than 50% of their profits to further their social mission
They are independent: owned and controlled in the interests of the social mission
They are transparent in how they report their social impact and how they operate
Why social enterprise?
There are lots of reasons why we are seeing the number of social enterprises grow.
Some of the reasons are:
Someone has experienced or identified a problem they want to solve (and then solve it for other people)
All businesses should operate this way, and put people and planet on an equal footing with profit
Charities needing to earn more of their money to survive and thrive Not wanting to rely on handouts or donations or volunteering to be sustainable
Being inspired by examples of successful social enterprises
There are lots of organisations out there to support social enterprises
Source: Social Enterprise UK
Contact us to know more about the work we do at foundation@bravepath.co.uk
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