SOCIAL ENTERPRISES FOR TRAINING

The Enterprising Non-Profits Program uses the term “social enterprise” to refer to business ventures operated by non-profits, whether they are societies, charities, or co-operatives. These businesses sell goods or provide services in the market for the purpose of creating a blended return on investment, both financial and social. Their profits are returned to the business or to a social purpose, rather than maximizing profits to shareholders.

Perfect combination of purpose and profit

Social enterprises are the perfect combination of purpose and profit. A social enterprise is an organization that employs a business model to tackle the world’s social and environmental challenges. Some social enterprises do that by selling goods and services to fund life-changing charitable activities. Other social enterprises have an impact by providing much-needed services to vulnerable communities—like the Grameen Bank, a microfinance institution for the world’s lowest-income communities, created by social enterprise pioneer Muhammad Yunus. With traditional business, profits are divided between the owners and/or shareholders. Social enterprises reinvest profits in the business in order to grow its impact.

Sustainability at best!

The key benefit of social enterprises is sustainability. In an age of declining government funding, traditional charities find it increasingly difficult to find reliable long-term support for projects. Social enterprises like ours are self-sustaining, empowering our programs with the financial security to ensure long-term impact. By applying innovative business approaches, social enterprises can find solutions to the world’s greatest social and environmental challenges—solutions that would be beyond the capacity of traditional charities. And because they speak the same language, social enterprises have far greater power to build partnerships with the business world, leveraging corporate connections and infrastructure to scale impact even more—as EDUPRO does through partnerships with socially conscious companies around the world.