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Social Enterprise Funding
According to figures provided by the Government’s Annual Small Business Survey 2005, there are around 55,000 social enterprises in the UK. Combined, social enterprises have a turnover of around £27 billion per year, account for five percent of all businesses with employees and contribute almost one percent of annual GDP.
What are they ?
Social enterprises are businesses; but whereas other businesses operate for profit, social enterprises use business solutions to achieve benefits for the community. The Department of Trade and Industry defines them as businesses with ‘primarily social objectives whose surpluses are principally reinvested for that purpose in the business of in the community, rather than being driven by the need to maximise profit for shareholders and owners.’
Social enterprises belong to the Third Sector, which includes other non-governmental organisations seeking to provide social or economic benefits. They operate over many different sectors, such as health and social care, arts and design, childcare, sport and leisure, finance and transport, and comprise of such entities as trading arms of charities, co-operatives, housing associations, development trusts and football supporter’s trusts. Well known social enterprises in the UK include Cafedirect, The Big Issue, The Co-operative Group, Welsh Water, the Eden Project and Jamie Oliver’s Fifteen.
Social enterprises display common characteristics: they can be identified by their social ownership – which means they are accountable to stakeholders and the wider community.
