A social enterprise is a business model in which an organization applies ordinary commercial methods, selling goods or services in a market, in order to advance a social or environmental mission, reinvesting the profit it earns back into that mission rather than paying it out to shareholders or owners. It differs from a conventional company in treating its social or environmental goal as central to its purpose rather than as a secondary concern, and it differs from a typical nonprofit in generating its own sustainable earned revenue rather than depending mainly on donations or government grants.
Facts
Core MechanismA social enterprise trades commercially like an ordinary business but organizes itself around social objectives and environmentally responsible operation, is run democratically rather than for the exclusive financial benefit of outside owners, and remains financially independent rather than reliant on grants, sitting between a conventional private company, a cooperative and a public enterprise rather than duplicating any one of them. 1 Origin YearFreer Spreckley put forward the first description of a social enterprise on these terms in the UK in 1978, publishing it formally in 1981. Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
The Economy of Communion, businesses founded within the Focolare Movement that direct a share of profit to the poor and to spreading the practice itself, is a values-driven enterprise model closely related to the broader social enterprise category.
A social enterprise applies ordinary commercial methods to advance a social or environmental mission rather than to maximize shareholder return, making it a mission-driven form of entrepreneurship.
Social entrepreneurship, building ventures that pursue social or environmental goals alongside profit, is a recognized branch of entrepreneurship practice.
Sources
1. Wikipedia, Social Enterprise
WikipediaWikipedia: Social enterprise, definition and origin paragraphQuote, Wikipedia: Social enterprise, definition and origin paragraph
The first description of a social enterprise as a democratically owned and run trading organisation that is financially independent, has social objectives and operates in an environmentally responsible way, was put forward by Freer Spreckley in the UK in 1978 and later written as a publication in 1981.
1. Wikipedia, Social Enterprise
WikipediaWikipedia: Social enterprise, Spreckley 1978 attribution sentenceQuote, Wikipedia: Social enterprise, Spreckley 1978 attribution sentence
was put forward by Freer Spreckley in the UK in 1978 and later written as a publication in 1981
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