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Concept
Social enterprise
Summary
A social enterprise is an organization that applies commercial strategies to maximize improvements in financial, social and environmental well-being. This may include maximizing social impact alongside profits for co-owners.
Social enterprises can be structured as a business, a partnership for profit or non-profit, and may take the form (depending on in which country the entity exists and the legal forms available) of a co-operative, mutual organisation, a disregarded entity, a social business, a benefit corporation, a community interest company, a company limited by guarantee or a charity organisation. They can also take more conventional structures.
Social enterprises have business, environmental and social goals. As a result, their social goals are embedded in their objective, which differentiates them from other organisations and companies. A social enterprise's main purpose is to promote, encourage, and make social change. Social enterprises are businesses created to further a social purpose in a financially sustainable way. Social enterprises can provide income generation opportunities that meet the basic needs of people who live in poverty. They are sustainable, and earned income from sales is reinvested in their mission. They do not depend on philanthropy and can sustain themselves over the long term. Their models can be expanded or replicated to other communities to generate more impact.
A social enterprise can be more sustainable than a nonprofit organisation that may solely rely on grant money, donations or government policies alone.
Social enterprises are dynamic, requiring adaptation to ensure they meet the needs of communities and individuals in an ever-changing world. Their shared common thread is that they all operate to achieve a balanced financial, social and environmental set of objectives.
worker- and employee-owned trading enterprises, co-operatives, and collectives.
Official source
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