What is a Social Entrepreneur?Social entrepreneurs are individuals with innovative solutions to society’s most pressing social problems. They are ambitious and persistent, tackling major social issues and offering new ideas for wide-scale change.

Rather than leaving societal needs to the government or business sectors, social entrepreneurs find what is not working and solve the problem by changing the system, spreading the solution, and persuading entire societies to take new leaps.

Social entrepreneurs often seem to be possessed by their ideas, committing their lives to changing the direction of their field. They are both visionaries and ultimate realists, concerned with the practical implementation of their vision above all else.

Each social entrepreneur presents ideas that are user-friendly, understandable, ethical, and engage widespread support in order to maximize the number of local people that will stand up, seize their idea, and implement with it. In other words, every leading social entrepreneur is a mass recruiter of local changemakers—a role model proving that citizens who channel their passion into action can do almost anything.

Over the past two decades, the citizen sector has discovered what the business sector learned long ago: There is nothing as powerful as a new idea in the hands of a first-class entrepreneur.

Why "Social" Entrepreneur? Just as entrepreneurs change the face of business, social entrepreneurs act as the change agents for society, seizing opportunities others miss and improving systems, inventing new approaches, and creating solutions to change society for the better. While a business entrepreneur might create entirely new industries, a social entrepreneur comes up with new solutions to social problems and then implements them on a large scale.

Historical Examples of Leading Social Entrepreneurs:Susan B. Anthony (U.S.): Fought for Women's Rights in the United States, including the right to control property and helped spearhead adoption of the 19th amendment. Vinoba Bhave (India): Founder and leader of the Land Gift Movement, he caused the redistribution of more than 7,000,000 acres of land to aid India's untouchables and landless. Dr. Maria Montessori (Italy): Developed the Montessori approach to early childhood education. Florence Nightingale (U.K.): Founder of modern nursing, she established the first school for nurses and fought to improve hospital conditions. Margaret Sanger (U.S.): Founder of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, she led the movement for family planning efforts around the world. John Muir (U.S.): Naturalist and conservationist, he established the National Park System and helped found The Sierra Club.

Jean Monnet (France): Responsible for the reconstruction of the French economy following World War II, including the establishment of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC). The ECSC and the European Common Market were direct precursors of the European Union. To read more about social entrepreneurship, click here.

***Social entrepreneurshipFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaJump to: navigation, search Social entrepreneurship is the work of a social entrepreneur. A social entrepreneur recognizes a social problem and uses entrepreneurial principles to organize, create and manage a venture to achieve social change (a social venture). Whereas a business entrepreneur typically measures performance in profit and return, a social entrepreneur focuses on creating social capital. Thus, the main aim of social entrepreneurship is to further social and environmental goals. However, whilst social entrepreneurs are most commonly associated with the voluntary and not-for-profit sectors [1], this need not necessarily be incompatible with making a profit. Social entrepreneurship practiced with a world view or international context is called international social entrepreneurship.[2] See also Corporate Social Entrepreneurship.

Contents [hide]1 History 2 Current practice 3 See also 4 Further reading 5 References 6 External links

[edit] HistoryThe terms social entrepreneur and social entrepreneurship were used first in the literature on social change in the 1960 and 1970s.[3] The terms came into widespread use in the 1980s and 1990s, promoted by Bill Drayton the founder of Ashoka: Innovators for the Public,[4] and others such as Charles Leadbeater.[5] From the 1950s to the 1990s Michael Young was a leading promoter of social enterprise and in the 1980s was described by Professor Daniel Bell at Harvard as 'the world's most successful entrepreneur of social enterprises' because of his role in creating more than sixty new organizations worldwide, including a series of Schools for Social Entrepreneurs in the UK. Another British social entrepreneur is Lord Mawson OBE. Andrew Mawson was given a peerage in 2007 because of his pioneering regeneration work. This includes the creation of the renowned Bromley by Bow Centre in East London. He has recorded these experiences in his book "The Social Entrepreneur: Making Communities Work" [6] and currently runs Andrew Mawson Partnerships to help promote his regeneration work.[7]. The National Center for Social Entrepreneurs was founded in 1985 by Judson Bemis[8]

and Robert M. Price[9], and Jerr Boschee served as its president and CEO from 1991 to 1999.

Although the terms are relatively new, social entrepreneurs and social entrepreneurship can be found throughout history. A list of a few historically noteworthy people whose work exemplifies classic "social entrepreneurship" might include Florence Nightingale (founder of the first nursing school and developer of modern nursing practices), Robert Owen (founder of the cooperative movement), and Vinoba Bhave (founder of India's Land Gift Movement). During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries some of the most successful social entrepreneurs successfully straddled the civic, governmental, and business worlds - promoting ideas that were taken up by mainstream public services in welfare, schools, and health care.

[edit] Current practiceOne well-known contemporary social entrepreneur is Muhammad Yunus, founder and manager of Grameen Bank and its growing family of social venture businesses, who was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize in 2006.[10] The work of Yunus and Grameen echoes a theme among modern day social entrepreneurs that emphasizes the enormous synergies and benefits when business principles are unified with social ventures.[11] In some countries - including Bangladesh and to a lesser extent, the USA - social entrepreneurs have filled the spaces left by a relatively small state. In other countries - particularly in Europe and South America - they have tended to work more closely with public organizations at both the national and local level.

In India, a social entrepreneur can be a person, who is the founder, co-founder or a chief functionary (may be president, secretary, treasurer, chief executive officer (CEO), or chairman) of a social enterprise, which primarily is a NGO, which raises funds through some services (often fund raising events and community activities) and occasionally products. Rippan Kapur of Child Rights and You and Jyotindra Nath of Youth United, are such examples of social entrepreneurs, who are the founders of the respective organizations. Jay Vikas Sutaria of Bhookh.com is a social entrepreneur who is leveraging the power of the Internet to fight hunger in India.

Another excellent example of a non-profit social enterprise in India is Rang De [1]. Founded by Ramakrishna and Smita Ram in January 2008, Rang De is a peer-to-peer online platform that makes low-cost micro-credit accessible to both the rural and urban poor in India. Individuals get to directly invest in borrowers from across India, track their investments online and receive regular repayments, with a token 2% pa. ROI.

Today, nonprofits and non-governmental organizations, foundations, governments, and individuals also play the role to promote, fund, and advise social entrepreneurs around the planet. A growing number of colleges and universities are establishing programs focused on educating and training social entrepreneurs.

In the UK in 2002 seven leading nonprofit organisations established UnLtd - The Foundation for Social Entrepreneurs. It holds a £100 million endowment especially to

invest in social entrepreneurs in the UK. UnLtd provides individuals with cash awards and practical support that includes coaching, training, and networking opportunities to help develop community projects. UnLtd Ventures is the in-house consultancy division of UnLtd and focuses on a number of outstanding social entrepreneurs, providing them with business support and helping them to scale up or replicate their organisations or get investment ready. Another of their operations, UnLtd Research, is becoming the world's primary source of evidence and thinking around social entrepreneurship. Its central purpose is to lead the global business, public policy, and academic debates about the role of social entrepreneurship in community regeneration, employment, and growth strategies.

The George Foundation's Women's Empowerment program empowers women by providing education, cooperative farming, vocational training, savings planning, and business development. In 2006 the cooperative farming program, Baldev Farms, was the second largest banana grower in South India with 250 acres (1.0 km2) under cultivation.[12] Profits from the farm are used for improving the economic status of the workers and for running the other charitable activities of the foundation.[12]

Some have created for-profit and for-a-difference organizations. A recent example is Vikram Akula founder CEO of SKS Microfinance, the McKinsey alumnus who started a microlending venture in villages of Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. Although this venture is for profit, it has initiated a sharp social change amongst poor women from villages. A great example is the activity of Brent Freeman [2], Norma LaRosa [3], and Nick Reder [4] the co-founders of MARCsMovement.com [5] an new online retail site in the United States for Moral And Responsible Companies (MARCs) that rates its vendors' business practices in four categories and lets the customer donate 5% of their entire purchase to the charity of their choice. This online shopping site aims to empower everyday online shoppers to make a difference in the world through everyday purchases and is committed to providing double bottom line value with every sale. Using the same mentality, MARCsMovement.com became Roozt.com in 2010 utilizing a daily deal platform to sell the products of socially responsible, social entrepreneur vendors.

There are continuing arguments over precisely who counts as a social entrepreneur. Some have advocated restricting the term to founders of organizations that primarily rely on earned income – meaning income earned directly from paying consumers. Others have extended this to include contracted work for public authorities, while still others include grants and donations. This argument is unlikely to be resolved soon. Peter Drucker, for example, once wrote that there was nothing so entrepreneurial as creating a new university: yet in most developed countries the majority of university funding comes from the state.

Organizations such as Ashoka: Innovators for the Public, the Skoll Foundation, the Omidyar Network, the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship, Root Cause, the Canadian Social Entrepreneurship Foundation, New Profit Inc., and Echoing Green among others, focus on highlighting these hidden change-makers who are scattered throughout the world. Ashoka's Changemakers "open sourcing social solutions" initiative

Changemakers uses an online platform for what it calls collaborative competitions to build communities of practice around pressing issues.

The North American organizations tend to have a strongly individualistic stance focused on a handful of exceptional leaders, while others in Asia and Europe emphasize more how social entrepreneurs work within teams, networks, and movements for change. The Skoll Foundation, created by eBay's first president, Jeff Skoll, makes capacity building "mezzanine level" grants to social entrepreneurial organizations that already have reached a certain level of impact, connects them through the annual Skoll World Forum and Social Edge, the Foundation's online community, and highlights their work through partnerships with the Sundance Institute, Frontline World, NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, and other film and broadcast outlets. Skoll also supports the field of social entrepreneurship, including through Skoll's founding of the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship at the Said Business School at Oxford University. Examples of social entrepreneurial business in the USA include NIKA Water Company, which sells bottled water in the USA and uses 100% of its profits to bring clean water to those in the developing world, as well as Newman's Own which donates 100% of its profits to support various educational charities.

Youth social entrepreneurship is an increasingly common approach to engaging youth voice in solving social problems. Youth organizations and programs promote these efforts through a variety of incentives to young people.[13] One such program is Young Social Pioneers, which invests in the power and promise of Australia's young leaders. The program, which is an initiative of The Foundation for Young Australians, strengthens, supports and celebrates the role of young people in creating positive change in their communities. About Face International [6] has a program that promotes youth social entrepreneurship amongst middle school, high school, and college students by providing interest-free loans, grants, and mentorship. They also help middle schools, high schools, and colleges form youth social entrepreneurship after school clubs on site. The MARCsMovement [7] business model parallels such an approach by "paying it forward" with their commitment to help educate today's youth about the fundamentals of socially responsible businesses so that they may become progressive leaders of tomorrow.

Istanbul Bilgi Üniversity has launched BİLGİ Young Social Entrepreneur Awards project in May 2010 to identify, educate and provide financial support for the young social entrepreneurs in Turkey. Cooperating with International Youth Foundation, Sylvan/Laureate Foundation and TEGV, through this comprehensive strategy, İstanbul Bilgi University seeks to contribute to the development of a new generation of socially conscious citizens leading change in their communities. To apply you may visit www.bilgiggo.com

Another youth social entrepreneurship organization is rooted in Turkey, the organization named SOGLA [8] (The Academy of Young Social Entrepreneurs). SOGLA provides young entrepreneur candidates (named SOGLA pioneers) with high quality of education, supports pioneers to develop, start-up and sustain their social entrepreneurship projects.

Fast Company Magazine annually publishes a list of the twenty-five best social entrepreneurs, which the magazine defines as organizations "using the disciplines of the corporate world to tackle daunting social problems."[14] In 2009, BusinessWeek followed suit, publishing a review of American's twenty-five most promising social entrepreneurs, defined as "enterprising individuals who apply business practices to solving societal problems."[15]

The internet and social networking websites have been pivotal resources for the success and collaboration of many Social Entrepreneurs, allowing ideas to be heard by broader audiences, allowing networks and investors to develop globally and all achievable with little or no start up capital. For example, starting with no capital and just an interesting idea, three Australian students (1egg1world) are in the process of raising AUS$1million for Charity starting out with just one egg, an excellent example of the growing opportunities brought by the internet to people with good ideas.[16]

[edit] See alsoCorporate Social Entrepreneurship Collaboration Collaborative method List of social entrepreneurs Social business Social enterprise Social innovation Social Venture Capital Impact maximization Geotourism Appropriate technology Triple Bottom Line business theory [edit] Further readingDavid Bornstein, How to Change the World: Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Ideas, Oxford University Press (and others) ISBN 0-19-513805-8 Charles Leadbeater, The Rise of the Social Entrepreneur, Demos, 1996 Joanna Mair, Jeffrey Robinson, and Kai Hockerts, Social Entrepreneurship, Palgrave, 2006. ISBN 1-4039-9664-4 Peredo, A. M., & McLean, M. 2006. Social Entrepreneurship: A Critical Review of the Concept. Journal of World Business, 41(1): 56-65. John Elkington and Pamela Hartigan, The Power of Unreasonable People: How Entrepreneurs Creates Markets to Change the World, Harvard Business Press, 2008 Robert Gunn and Christopher Durkin, Social Entrepreneurship: A Skills Approach, Policy Press, 2010 Mark B. Durieux and Robert A. Stebbins, Social Entrepreneurship for Dummies, Wiley, 2010. J. Mark Munoz, International Social Entrepreneurship, Business Expert Press, 2010. [edit] References***

Please read:A personal appeal from Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales Social enterpriseFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaJump to: navigation, search This article is written like an advertisement. Please help rewrite this article from a neutral point of view. For blatant advertising that would require a fundamental rewrite to become encyclopedic, use {{db-spam}} to mark for speedy deletion. (June 2009) This article is written like a personal reflection or essay and may require cleanup. Please help improve it by rewriting it in an encyclopedic style. (November 2010)

Social enterprises are social mission driven organizations which apply market-based strategies to achieve a social purpose. The movement includes both non-profits that use business models to pursue their mission and for-profits whose primary purposes are social. Their aim – to accomplish targets that are social and/or environmental as well as financial – is often referred to as the triple bottom line. Investment in social enterprises is often now referred to as "blended value investment." Many commercial businesses would consider themselves to have social objectives, but social enterprises are distinctive because their social or environmental purpose remains central to their operation.

Rather than maximizing shareholder value, the primary aim of social enterprises is to generate profit to further their social and/or environmental goals. This can be accomplished through a variety of ways and depends on the structure of the social enterprise. The profit from a business could be used to support a social aim, such as funding the programming of a non-profit organization. Moreover, a business could accomplish its social aim through its operation by employing individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds or lending to micro-businesses that have difficulty in securing investment from mainstream lenders.

The Social Enterprise World Forum was established in 2008 to provide an opportunity for social enterprise leaders and practitioners from around the world to collaborate in support of social enterprise development. To date over 1500 people have attended the annual world forums, these have been held in Edinburgh (2008), Melbourne (2009) and San Francisco (2010). The 2011 World Forum is being held in Johannesburg and the SEWF steering group is receiving expressions of interest for the 2012 World Forum to be held in Asia.

Contents [hide]1 History and Philosophy 2 In Australia 3 In North America 4 In India 5 In Ghana 6 In Kenya 7 In Europe

7.1 Czech Republic 7.2 Finland 7.3 Italy 7.4 United Kingdom 7.5 Scotland 7.5.1 Examples 7.5.2 Social firms 8 Awards 9 See also 10 References 11 Sources 12 Further reading 13 External links

[edit] History and PhilosophyThe idea of social enterprise has a long history in the UK [1][2] and worldwide under a number of different names and encompassing different tendencies [3]. In the UK it can be understood as a way of organising activity which is neither part of the public nor private sector. Organisations which use a social enterprise logic usually combine social and economic missions and so can be seen as type of hybrid.[4]. They draw from a legacy of philanthropic and mutual approaches that go back over three centuries (a good example of a "mutual organization" might be a worker or consumer co-operative offers). Such organisations are not for private profit but in some cases they may own other private companies and/or work in partnership with government on particular projects.

It is important to distinguish 'social enterprise' as an idea, or aspiration from a 'social enterprise organisation.' Many organisations can be analysed as working in a social enterprise way and simple definitions (such as suggesting an arbitrary percentage of 'traded income' to qualify an organisation as a social enterprise) tend to either include or exclude agencies in an idiosyncratic way. European scholars Borzaga and Defourney [5][6] have suggested a nine-part framework (including economic and social mission criteria) for analysing social enterprises.

Some writers have focussed on social enterprise activity in particular policy fields such as work and training for unemployed people.[7] Readable but thoughtful accounts of the complexity of the field can be found.[8] Other resources include the Social Enterprise Journal and the Annals of Co-operative Study which publish research studies in the field. The European Social Enterprise Research network (EMES), and the Co-operative Research Unit (CRU) at the Open University have undertaken and published research. Network organisations such as Co-ops UK, Development Trusts Association, Social Enterprise Coalition provide research, information and policy briefings in this area.

[edit] In AustraliaThe forms social enterprises can take and the industries they operate in are so many and various that it has always been a challenge to define, find and count social enterprises. In

2009 Social Traders partnered with the Australian Centre for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Studies (ACPNS) at Queensland University of Technology to define social enterprise and, for the first time in Australia, to identify and map the social enterprise sector: its scope, its variety of forms, its reasons for trading, its financial dimensions, and the individuals and communities social enterprises aim to benefit.

This Finding Australia’s Social Enterprise Sector project produced its final report in June 2010. The project was led by Associate Professor Jo Barraket, Australia’s leading social enterprise academic.

One of the key features of this Australian research is its intention to define social enterprise in a way that was informed by and made sense to those working in or with social enterprises.

The research design therefore included workshops to explore and test what social enterprise managers, researchers, and relevant policy makers meant by the term ‘social enterprise’. This was the resulting definition:

Social enterprises are organisations that:

a. Are led by an economic, social, cultural, or environmental mission consistent with a public or community benefit;

b. Trade to fulfil their mission;

c. Derive a substantial portion of their income from trade; and

d. Reinvest the majority of their profit/surplus in the fulfilment of their mission.

[edit] In North AmericaThe Social Enterprise Alliance(SEA), based in the USA, defines a “social enterprise” as “an organization or venture that advances its primary social or environmental mission using business methods.”

SEA advocates for the social enterprise field, acts as a hub of information and education for its members, and promotes the continued growth of this vibrant sector. Every year, the Social Enterprise Alliance puts together the largest gathering of leaders representing enterprising non-profits, fair trade, digital inclusion, micro-finance, for-benefit companies, and others pursuing a social or environmental mission using market-driven approaches. The event is known as the Social Enterprise Summit.

Much of the field in North America has been driven by thinking from REDF (formerly the Roberts Enterprise Development Fund; http://www.redf.org/), which pioneered Social Return on Investment Analysis in connection with funding numerous social enterprises in the San Francisco region. Working Assets, a San Francisco-based company, created a model of social enterprise through its mobile, credit card and long distance services that

automatically generate donations to progressive organizations when customers use its services. Other leading North American examples of social enterprise include Greyston Bakery (which produces ingredients for Ben & Jerry's ice cream) and Housing Works in New York, Rubicon Programs in California and Kidslink in Ontario. Another leading organization in the social enterprise field is Community Wealth Ventures (http://www.communitywealth.com/), which is the largest social enterprise consulting firm in the country.

The Social Enterprise Reporter (http://sereporter.com) covers news for and about nonprofit entrepreneurs in North America.

Marc Lane's book on best corporate governance practices, "Representing Corporate Officers and Directors," was first published in 1987.[9][10] He revisited his treatise on corporate governance in 2005.[11][12] The new version is updated annually with the most recent supplement for the year 2010.[13][14] With the goal of promoting positive social change, Lane provides companies and their directors, officers, auditors and shareholders with insights for the compliance of new legislation, rules and responsibilities in response to the avalanche of corporate accounting scandals.[15][16]

[edit] In IndiaIn India, a social enterprise may be a non-profit Non-governmental organization(NGO), often registered as a Society under Indian Societies Registration Act, 1860, a Trust registered under various Indian State Trust Acts or a Section 25 Company registered under Indian Companies Act, 1956.[17] India has around 1-2 million NGOs, including number of religious organizations, religious trust, like Temples, Mosque and Gurudwara associations etc., who are not deemed as social enterprises.

A social enterprise in India is primarily NGOs, who raise funds through some services (often fund raising events and community activities) and occasionally products. Despite this, in India the term, Social Enterprise is not widely used, instead terms like NGOs and NPOs (Non-profit organizations) are used, where these kind of organizations are legally allowed to raise fund for non-business activities. Child Rights and You and Youth United, are such examples of social enterprise, who raise funds through their services, fund raising activities (organizing events, donations, and grants) or sometimes products, to further their social and environmental goals.

[edit] In GhanaThe registered non-profit Trashy Bags was launched in 2007 in order to increase public awareness of Ghana's solid plastic waste problem and clean up sachets from the streets of Accra. This company buys waste from collectors. After washing and drying the sachets, it sews them into fashionable bags and other products which are then sold in Accra and exported to eight other countries around the world. The Trashy Bags Company has collected 20 million plastic sachets since its founding, and employs 60 machinists.

[edit] In Kenya

In Kenya many NGOs, use business models to improve lives of people mainly in rural Kenya. An example of this is KOMAZA a non-profit social enterprise that plants trees with small holder farmers and uses economies of scale to enable them to access high value markets for processes trees. Anohter example of this is RISE Kenya [1] that runs project to mitigate climate change in the semi arid Eastern Province of Kenya. They also run weaving projects where by women who would traditionally engage in weaving make products that are marketed in the capital city Nairobi and in over seas markets of Europe and America.

[edit] In EuropeThe best established European research network in the field, EMES, works with a more articulated definition - a Weberian 'ideal type' rather than a prescriptive definition - which relies on nine fuzzy criteria:

Economic criteria:

1. continuous activity of the production and/or sale of goods and services (rather than predominantly advisory or grant-giving functions).

2. a high level of autonomy: social enterprises are created voluntarily by groups of citizens and are managed by them, and not directly or indirectly by public authorities or private companies, even if they may benefit from grants and donations. Their shareholders have the right to participate ('voice') and to leave the organisation ('exit').

3. a significant economic risk: the financial viability of social enterprises depends on the efforts of their members, who have the responsibility of ensuring adequate financial resources, unlike most public institutions.

4. social enterprises' activities require a minimum number of paid workers, although, like traditional non-profit organisations, social enterprises may combine financial and non-financial resources, voluntary and paid work.

Social criteria:

5. an explicit aim of community benefit: one of the principal aims of social enterprises is to serve the community or a specific group of people. To the same end, they also promote a sense of social responsibility at local level.

6. citizen initiative: social enterprises are the result of collective dynamics involving people belonging to a community or to a group that shares a certain need or aim. They must maintain this dimension in one form or another.

7. decision making not based on capital ownership: this generally means the principle of 'one member, one vote', or at least a voting power not based on capital shares. Although capital owners in social enterprises play an important role, decision-making rights are shared with other shareholders.

8. participatory character, involving those affected by the activity: the users of social enterprises' services are represented and participate in their structures. In many cases one of the objectives is to strengthen democracy at local level through economic activity.

9. limited distribution of profit: social enterprises include organisations that totally prohibit profit distribution as well as organisations such as co-operatives, which may distribute their profit only to a limited degree, thus avoiding profit maximising behaviour.

Ongoing research work characterises social enterprises as often having multiple objectives, multiple stakeholders and multiple sources of funding. However their objectives tend to fall into three categories:

integration of disadvantaged people through work (work integration social enterprises or WISEs) provision of social, community and environmental services ethical trading such as fair trade Despite, and sometimes in contradiction to, such academic work, the term social enterprise is being picked up and used in different ways in various European countries:

[edit] Czech RepublicIn the Czech Republic a working party stemming from the development partnerships in the EQUAL programme agreed on the following distinctions (April 2008):

Social economy

It is a complex of autonomous private activities realized by different types of organizations that have the aim to serve their members or local community first of all by doing business. The social economy is oriented on solving issues of unemployment, social coherence and local development. It is created and developed on the base of concept of triple bottom line – economic, social and environmental benefits. Social economy enables citizens to get involved actively in the regional development. Making profit/surplus is desirable, however is not a primary goal. Contingent profit is used in preference for development of activities of organization and for the needs of local community. Internal relations in the social enterprises are headed to the maximum involvement of members/employees in decision-making and self-management while external relations strengthen social capital. Legal form of social economy entities is not decisive – what is crucial is observing public benefit aims as listed in the articles. Subjects of the social economy are social enterprises and organizations supporting their work in the areas of education, consulting and financing. Social entrepreneurship

Social entrepreneurship develops independent business activities and is active on the market in order to solve issues of employment, social coherence and local development. Its activities support solidarity, social inclusion and growth of social capital mainly on local level with the maximum respect of sustainable development.

Social enterprise

Social enterprise means "a subject of social entrepreneurship", i.e. legal entity or its part or a natural person which fulfils principles of the social enterprise; social enterprise must have appropriate trade license. The above mentioned definitions stem from the four basic principles which should be followed by all social enterprises. Standards with a commentary were settled for each principle. These standards were settled as the minimum so that they should be observed by all legal entities and all types of social enterprises. Specific types of enterprises, that are undergoing pilot verification within CIP EQUAL projects and that are already functioning in the Czech Republic, are social firms employing seriously disadvantaged target groups, and municipal social cooperatives as a suitable form of entrepreneurship with the view of development of local communities and microregions. The legal form a social enterprise takes is not important, however they must be subject of private law. According to the existing legal system, they can function in a form of cooperatives, civic associations, public benefit associations, church legal entities, Ltd., stock companies and sole traders. Budgetary organizations and municipalities should not be social enterprises as they are not autonomous - they are parts of public administration. Social entrepreneurship is defined very broadly. Beside employment of the people disadvantaged at the labour market it also includes organizations providing public benefit services in the area of social inclusion and local development including environmental activities, individuals from the disadvantaged groups active in business and also complementary activities of NGOs destined to reinvest profit into the main public benefit activity of an organization. Social entrepreneurship defined in such a wide way should not be directly bound to legal benefits and financial support because the concept of social entrepreneurship might be then threatened by misuse and disintegration. Conditions of eventual legal and financial support should be discussed by experts. [edit] FinlandIn Finland a law was passed in 2004 that defines a social enterprise as being any sort of enterprise that is entered on the relevant register and at least 30% of whose employees are disabled or long-term unemployed. As of March 2007, 91 such enterprises had been registered, the largest with 50 employees. In the UK the more specific term "social firm" is used to distinguish such "integration enterprises";

[edit] ItalyItaly passed a law in 2005 on imprese sociali, to which the government has given form and definition by Legislative Decree, 24 March 2006, no. 155 Under Italian law a social enterprise is a private entity that provides social utility goods and services, acting for the common interest and not for profit. The first general aspect that has to be highlighted is that a social enterprise is neither a new legal form, nor a new type of organization, but a legal category in which all eligible organizations may be included, regardless of their internal organizational structure. Therefore, the eligible organizations could in theory be cooperatives (i.e. employee-, producer-, or customer-owned firms), investor-owned firms (i.e. business corporations), or traditional nonprofit organizations (i.e. associations and foundations). This is the so-called principle of “neutrality of the legal forms” adopted by the Italian law. Hence, social enterprise is like a legal “brand” that all eligible

organizations can obtain and use in the marketplace. The requirements are: - being a private organization; - performing an entrepreneurial activity of production of social utility goods and services (The Law prescribes that this must be the main activity, that is, it has to account for at least 70% of the total income of the organization); - acting for the common interest and not for profit. In order to be defined as a social enterprise, an organization needs to simultaneously possess all these attributes.

[edit] United KingdomThe original use of the term social enterprise was first developed by Freer Spreckley in 1978, and later included in a publication called Social Audit – A Management Tool for Co-operative Working published in 1981 by Beechwood College. In the original publication the term social enterprise was developed to describe an organisation that uses Social Audit. Freer went on to describe a social enterprise as:[18]

An enterprise that is owned by those who work in it and/or reside in a given locality, is governed by registered social as well as commercial aims and objectives and run co-operatively may be termed a social enterprise. Traditionally, 'capital hires labour' with the overriding emphasis on making a 'profit' over and above any benefit either to the business itself or the workforce. Contrasted to this is the social enterprise where 'labour hires capital' with the emphasis on social, environmental and financial benefit.Later on the three areas of social, environmental and financial benefits used for measuring social enterprise became known as the Triple Bottom Line.

Twenty years later Freer Spreckley and Cliff Southcombe established the first[19] specialist support organisation in the UK Social Enterprise Partnership Ltd. in March 1997.

In the British context, social enterprises include community enterprises, credit unions, trading arms of charities, employee-owned businesses, co-operatives, development trusts, housing associations, social firms, and leisure trusts.

Whereas conventional businesses distribute their profit among shareholders, in social enterprises the surplus tends to go towards one or more social aims which the business has – for example education for the poor,vocational training for disabled people, environmental issues or for animal rights.

Social enterprises are distinct from charities (although charities are also increasingly looking at ways of maximising income from trading), and from private sector companies with policies on corporate social responsibility. An emerging view, however, is that social enterprise is a particular type of trading activity that sometimes gives rise to distinct organisation forms reflecting a commitment to social cause working with stakeholders from more than one sector of the economy

The first agency in the UK - Social Enterprise London (SEL) - was established in 1998[20] after collaboration between co-operative businesses (Poptel, Computercraft Ltd, Calverts Press, Artzone), a number of co-operative development agencies (CDAs), and

infrastructure bodies supporting co-operative enterprise development (Co-operative Training London, Co-operative Party, London ICOM, Co-operatives UK). SEL's first chief executive, Jonathan Bland, brought experience from Valencia where a business support infrastructure for co-operative enterprise was established using learning from the Mondragon region of Spain[21]. SEL did more than provide support to emerging businesses. It created a community of interest by working with the London Development Agency (LDA) to establish both an undergraduate degree in social enterprise at the University of East London (led by Jon Griffith) and a Social Enterprise Journal (now managed by Liverpool John Moores University and published by Emerald Publishing).

Two years later, The National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) established the Sustainable Funding Project. Using funds from FutureBuilders, Centrica and Charity Bank, this project promoted the concept of sustainability through trading to voluntary groups and charities.[22].

In 2002, the British government launched a unified Social Enterprise Strategy[23], and established a Social Enterprise Unit (SEnU) to co-ordinate its implementation in England and Wales. After a consultation on a new type of company (see CIC below), policy development was increasingly influenced by organisations in the conventional "non-profit" sector rather than those with their origins in employee-ownership and co-operative sectors. The 2003 DTI report on the consultation shows the disproportion influence of charitable trusts and umbrella organisations in the voluntary sector, and evidence now exists that the voice of progressive employee-owned organisations were marginalised in the course of producing the report.[24][25]

The Social Enterprise Unit was initially established within the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), and in 2006 became part of the newly created Office of the Third Sector, under the wing of the Cabinet Office.

Following broad consultation, SEnU adopted a broader definition which is independent of any legal model. This latitudinarian definition could include not only companies limited by guarantee, and industrial and provident societies but also companies limited by shares, unincorporated associations, partnerships and sole traders.

A survey conducted for the SEnU in 2004 found that there were 15,000 social enterprises in the UK (counting only those that are incorporated as companies limited by guarantee or industrial and provident societies). This is 1.2% of all enterprises in the UK. They employ 450,000 people, of whom two-thirds are full-time, plus a further 300,000 volunteers. Their combined annual turnover is £18 billion, and the median turnover is £285,000. Of this, 84% is from trading. In 2006, the government revised this estimate upwards to 55,000, based on a survey of a sample of owners of businesses with employees, which found that 5% of them define themselves as social enterprises[26]. The most up to date estimates suggest that there are approximately 62,000 social enterprises in the UK, contributing £24 billion to the UK economy [27].

Branding In February 2010 the Social Enterprise Coalition launched the new Social Enterprise Mark. Like the Fair Trade brand, the Social Enterprise Mark aims to increase the visibility of socially motivated businesses. More than this, the mark represents the growing commercial identity of social enterprises and a deliberate attempt to carve out a recognisable niche for such organisations in the business community. Qualification for the mark requires that a business conform to set criteria, e.g. companies must earn at least 50% of their income from trade and spend at least 50% of their profits on socially beneficial purposes [28]. The mark has been received with mixed responses in some corners with suggestions that the qualifying criteria is not strict enough [29].

[edit] ScotlandIn Scotland, social enterprise is a devolved function and is part of the remit of the Scottish Government.[30] Activities are co-ordinated by the Scottish Social Enterprise Coalition, and intellectual leadership is provided by the Social Enterprise Institute at Herriot-Watt University (Edinburgh), established under the directorship of Declan Jones. Senscot based in Edinburgh supports social entrepreneurs through a variety of activities including a weekly email bulletin by co-founder Lawrence Demarco.[31] The Social Enterprise Academy "deliver leadership, enterprise, and social impact programmes" throughout Scotland[32] and further support is provided by Development Trusts Association Scotland and Co-operative Development Scotland.[33][34]

[edit] ExamplesSome well known social enterprises include John Lewis, Welsh Water (Dŵr Cymru), Cafédirect, The Eden Project, Divine Chocolate (Kuapa Kokoo), The Big Issue, the Co-operative Group, Duchy Originals, the London Symphony Orchestra, and Jamie Oliver's Restaurant - 15.

Three common characteristics of social enterprises as defined by Social Enterprise London are:

Enterprise orientation: They are directly involved in producing goods or providing services to a market. They seek to be viable trading organisations, with an operating surplus. Social Aims: They have explicit social aims such as job creation, training or the provision of local services. They have ethical values including a commitment to local capacity building, and they are accountable to their members and the wider community for their social environmental and economic impact. Social ownership: They are autonomous organisations with governance and ownership structures based on participation by stakeholder groups (users or clients, local community groups etc.) or by trustees. Profits are distributed as profit sharing to stakeholders or used for the benefit of the community. The UK has also developed a new legal form called the community interest company (CIC). CICs are a new type of limited company designed specifically for those wishing to operate for the benefit of the community rather than for the benefit of the owners of the company. This means that a CIC cannot be formed or used solely for the personal gain of

a particular person, or group of people. Legislation caps the level of dividends payable at 35% of profits and returns to individuals are capped at 4% above the bank base rate.

CICs can be limited by shares, or by guarantee, and will have a statutory "asset lock" to prevent the assets and profits being distributed, except as permitted by legislation. This ensures the assets and profits are retained within the CIC for community purposes, or transferred to another asset-locked organisation, such as another CIC or charity.

A CIC cannot be formed to support political activities and a company that is a charity cannot be a CIC, unless it gives up its charitable status. However, a charity may apply to register a CIC as a subsidiary company.

The national body for the social enterprise movement in Britain is the Social Enterprise Coalition (SEC) and this liaises with similar groups in each region of England, and in Northern Ireland, Scotland & Wales. The definition of social enterprise propagated by the SEC is slightly broader than the original DTI definition and acknowledged that the social purpose of an organisation can be "embedded in its structure and governance"[35]. As such, social businesses that adopt inclusive governance structures and employee-ownership are brought fully into the fold of the movement.[36]

The Social Enterprise Mark is a symbol which tells customers that a product or service comes from a social enterprise. Enterprises wanting to use the mark must provide evidence against an agreed set of criteria that proves they are a social enterprise. The Social Enterprise Mark was launched as a pilot project in South West region in November 2007 and in 2009 it started to be used by social enterprises in other regions. Social enterprises can apply online at Social Enterprise Mark

[edit] Social firmsAnother example of a type of social enterprise is the social firm, a business set up specifically to create employment for people otherwise severely disadvantaged in the labour market.

[edit] AwardsThere are several awards that recognize and reward social enterprises.

The Enterprising Solutions Award is the UK's national award for social enterprise. Run by the Social Enterprise Coalition in partnership with the Office of the Third Sector in the Cabinet office and the Community Banking branch of the RBS Group, the awards recognize the work undertaken by many organizations within the social enterprise movement.

The Edge Upstarts Awards are run annually by the New Statesman in the UK.

The Hong Kong Social Enterprise Challenge is the first and the only inter-collegiate social ventures business competition in Hong Kong.

[edit] See alsoSocial business enterprise Social firm Impact maximization Social entrepreneurship Social business Social responsibility Public/social/private partnership Grameen family of organizations Social venture capital Corporate social responsibility Corporate Social Entrepreneurship Citizen enterprise List of social enterprises Microenterprise MicroConsignment [edit] References^ Woodin et al 2010> ^ </Wyler, S. (2009)> ^ Aiken, M. (2010) ^ Billis, D. (2010)ef ^ Borzaga, C. and Defourney, J. (2001) ^ Nyssens, M. (2006) ^ Spear 2001 ^ Pearce, J. (1993) ^ Staff Writer (2009). Avvo.com/attorneys/60601-il-marc-lane-1132572.html "Marc Jay Lane". Avvo. http://www. Avvo.com/attorneys/60601-il-marc-lane-1132572.html. Retrieved 28 May 2009. ^ Staff Editors (Jan 1987). "Representing Corporate Officers and Directors (Business Practice Library) (Hardcover)". Amazon.com. http://www.amazon.com/Representing-Corporate-Officers-Directors-Business/dp/0471817880/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1243963050&sr=1-1. Retrieved 28 May 2009. ^ Penn, Michael (19 July 2006). "THE LAW OFFICES OF MARC J. LANE AND ITS FINANCIAL-SERVICES AFFILIATES JOIN UNITED NATIONS' GLOBAL COMPACT". Northwestern Law. http://www.law.northwestern.edu/news/article_full.cfm?eventid=2761. Retrieved 12 May 2009. ^ Staff Editors (13 October 2004). "Representing Corporate Officers & Directors (Ring-bound)". Amazon.com. http://www.amazon.com/Representing-Corporate-Officers-Directors-Marc/dp/0735550964/ref=pd_rhf_p_img_1. Retrieved 28 May 2009. ^ Staff Writer (2005). "Representing corporate officers and directors". http://openlibrary.org/b/OL3308939M/Representing-corporate-officers-and-directors. Retrieved 1 June 2009. ^ Staff Writer (2005). "Representing corporate officers and directors". WorldCat. http://www.worldcat.org/isbn/0735550964. Retrieved 1 June 2009.

^ Staff Writer (2009). "Marc J. Lane". The Harry Walker Agency, Inc.. http://www.harrywalker.com/speaker/Marc-Lane.cfm?Spea_ID=955. Retrieved 2 June 2009. ^ The Harry Walker Agency, Inc. (Monday, 22 May 2006). "Harry Walker Agency Adds Marc J. Lane to Its Roster of Renowned Business Speakers; Impassioned...". New York, New York: Business Wire. http://www.allbusiness.com/company-activities-management/business-ethics/5478580-1.html. Retrieved 2 June 2005. ^ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_India_non-profit_laws ^ Freer Spreckley, http://www.locallivelihoods.com/Documents/Social%20Audit%201981.pdf Social Audit – A Management Tool for Co-operative Working, Local Livelihoods, 1981. ^ http://wck2.companieshouse.gov.uk/eaac71f56a94e9edebdd4706d92f857b/companysearch?disp=1&frfsh=1226152950#result Information provided by companies house ^ http://wck2.companieshouse.gov.uk/b59f3d73d53d4991c9f33cb34a3d7f7f/compdetails Information provided by Companies House ^ Understanding Social Enterprise: Theory and Practice, 2008 Social Enterpreneurship Research Conference, www.lbsu.ac.uk. ^ Outcome Monitoring Proposal - Sustainable Funding Project, submitted to NCVO, 20th March 2005. The proposal include a short history of the Sustainable Funding Project. ^ DTI (2002), Strategy for Social Enterprise. London: HM Treasury. ^ DTI (2003), Enterprise for Communities: Report on the public consultation and the government's intentions, HM Treasury. The appendices show quotations from contributors. ^ Ridley-Duff, R. J. (2007) "Communitarian Perspectives on Social Enterprise", Corporate Governance: An International Review, 15(2), 382-392. Footnote 10 describes a meeting at the Home Office in February 2004 involving staff from the Social Enterprise Unit. The influence of charitable trusts on the outcome of the consultation was discussed at this meeting. ^ Lincoln, A. (2006) Welcome address: DTI presentation to Third Annual UK Social Enterprise Research Conference, London South Bank University (22 June) ^ Cabinet Office. (2009). Social Enterprise [Online], London: Cabinet Office http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/third_sector/social_enterprise.aspx Accessed 21 December 2009 ^ Social Enterprise Mark. (2010). Social enterprise; trading for people and planet [Online], London: Social Enterprise Mark Co. http://www.socialenterprisemark.org.uk/ Accessed 11 February 2010. ^ Ainsworth, D. (19 March 2010). "Survey shows support for setting up rival social enterprise mark in Scotland", Third Sector [Online]. London: Third Sector. http://www.thirdsector.co.uk/go/contactus/ Accessed 26 March 2010 ^ Social Enterprise in Scotland Retrieved 30 June 2007. ^ Senscot ^ Social Enterprise Academy ^ DTAS ^ CDS

^ New Economics Foundation / Shorebank Advisory Services (2004) Unlocking the Potential, London: The Social Enterprise Coalition, page 8. ^ EAO (2008) "The voice of co-owned business" [edit] SourcesAiken, M. (2010) Taking the Long View: Conceptualising the challenges facing UK third sector organisations in the social and welfare field in Evers, A. and Zimmer, A. (eds) Turbulent environments: The impact of commercialisation on organisational legitimacy and the quality of services. Baden-Baden: Nomos Publishing. Billis, D. (2010). Hybrid Organizations in the Third Sector. Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan. Borzaga, C. and Defourney, J. (2001). The Emergence of Social Enterprise. London: Routledge). Nyssens, M. ed. (2006). Social Enterprises in Europe: Between Market, Public Policies and Communities. London: Routledge. Pearce, J. (1993). At the Heart of the Community Economy. London: Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. Spear, R. (2001). United Kingdom: Labour Market Integration and Employment Creation, in Tackling Social Exclusion in Europe, eds. Spear, R., Defourney, J., Favreau, L. & Laville, J-L. Aldershot: Ashgate. Woodin, T., Crook, D., and Carpentier, V. (2010). Community and Mutual Ownership: A historical review. York: Joseph Rowntree Foundation. Wyler, S. (2009). A History of Community Asset Ownership. London: Development Trusts Association. [edit] Further readingA Developed World: An online social publication featuring the stories of social entrepreneurs from around the world. Can the World Change? Perspectives on Social Entrepreneurship and Social Innovation Fostering Social Enterprise: An examination of the development of social enterprise in the US and Europe. How to Change the World: Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Ideas: David Bornstein profiles nine leading social entrepreneurs. Social Enterprise: A Financial Perspective: An alternative view on social enterprise which incorporate the agency theory and other analysis. The Meaning of Social Entrepreneurship This 1998 article by J. Gregory Dees, Professor of the Practice of Social Entrepreneurship and Nonprofit Management at Duke University's Fuqua School of Business, attempts to define what makes a social entrepreneur.

The Power of Unreasonable People: How Social Entrepreneurs Create Markets that Change the World: John Elkington and Pamela Hartigan describe how innovations by social entrepreneurs are addressing a variety of social, economic and environmental problems. The Social Audit Toolkit This is the latest in a series of publications on social enterprise and social audit by Freer Spreckley who pioneered social enterprise in the late 1970s. Mark B. Durieux and Robert A. Stebbins. Social Entrepreneurship for Dummies, Wiley, 2010.

[edit] External linksSocial Traders Social Enterprise Alliance and 10th Anniversary Social Enterprise Summit Third Sector Forums Community Wealth Ventures The Canadian Social Entrepreneurship Foundation Catalyst Fund Management and Research Socialinvestments.com Bringing Capital to Social Enterprises The Canadian Community Economic Development Network The Laurel Centre for Social Entrepreneurship Skoll Foundation Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship Ashoka: Innovators for the Public ClearlySo: Online marketplace for social business Scottish Social Enterprise Coalition Inter-cultural Education Global Social Venture Competition Social Enterprise Search Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_enterprise"Categories: Social economy | Social enterpriseHidden categories: Articles with a promotional tone from June 2009 | All articles with a promotional tone | Wikipedia articles needing style editing from November 2010 | All articles needing style editingPersonal toolsLog in / create account NamespacesArticle Discussion VariantsViewsRead Edit View history ActionsSearch NavigationMain page Contents Featured content Current events Random article Donate InteractionHelp About Wikipedia Community portal Recent changes Contact Wikipedia ToolboxWhat links here Related changes Upload file Special pages Permanent link Cite this page Print/exportCreate a bookDownload as PDFPrintable versionLanguagesBrezhoneg Deutsch Español Français 한국어 Lietuvių Nederlands 日本語 עברית Polski Suomi தமி�ழ் ไทย 中文 This page was last modified on 30 November 2010 at 13:19.

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"Always remember why you do what you do - social entrepreneurship is channeling creative energy beautifully. Write beauty into your organisation's DNA and achieve real impact." - Sachin Malhan, Inclusive Planet The social entrepreneurship world fetishizes the individual entrepreneur, new ideas, attribution, and evaluation for the sake of evaluation. If unchecked, these fetishes can hinder actual change. - Sunil Abraham, Centre for Internet & Society "In social entrepreneurship, doing the wrong thing is not a problem. Doing that same wrong thing again and again is a problem." Solomon Prakash, Ashoka India "While working with the poor, willingness to pay does not equal money on the table. But anything given free of cost is not valued." -Mukteshwari Bosco, Healing Fields Foundation On rescuing victims of trafficking and forced prostitution: "I see so much evil, its tough to believe there is any good. But it is key to believe in the goodness of people."- Sunitha Krishnan, Prajwala "Too often, traditional monitoring and evaluation is like an autopsy - late, intrusive, and inconclusive. Metrics should be like taking a pulse - a light touch that's frequently taken. ID your drivers of success, devise key metrics, create reporting templates, schedule regular reviews." - Rob Katz, Acumen Fund