Social enterprise is a relatively new term for a type of business that has existed for at least a century.
The term social enterprise relates to social entrepreneur, the name originally given to 19th century philanthropic businessmen and industrialists, who had genuine concern for the welfare of their employees.
Today a social enterprise is a business with primarily social objectives whose surpluses are principally reinvested for that purpose in the business or in the community, rather than being driven by the need to maximise profit for shareholders and owners.
This aim to accomplish targets that are social and environmental as well as financial is often referred to as having a triple bottom line.
Within this definition, social enterprises can take on a variety of forms, including;
- unincorporated associations
- trusts
- limited liability companies
- some industrial and provident societies such as community benefit societies
- charities
- Community Interest Companies (like Enta CIC)
- charitable incorporated organisations
The Birmingham and Solihull Social Economy Consortium tells us that a recent (2007) baseline survey of social enterprise in the Birmingham and Solihull area reveals that there are about 320 social enterprises trading in sub-region, making a significant contribution to the local economy.
These enterprises employ almost 12,500 staff and just over half have turnovers of between £100k and £1m per year - the largest generate as much as £5m per year.
Visit www.bssec.org.uk for further details about Social Enterprise in the Birmingham and Solihull region.
Enta are proud to be members of Social Enterprise West Midlands - visit www.socialenterprisewm.org.uk for information about SE's in the wider West Midlands region.
Visit www.socialenterprise.org.uk for further details about Social Enterprise in general.