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So what is Social Enterprise?
Social Enterprise is not a new concept in our part of Wales and social enterprise models have been at the heart of service delivery and the regions third sector since the nineteenth century. However, as funding sources become even scarcer and the public sector explores options for redesigning services to deliver better quality citizen-centred services, there is more talk of the concept of social enterprise.
Social Enterprises are organisations that trade in order to pursue a social benefit and reinvest profits back into delivering social objectives.
Some well known examples of social enterprises include:
- Divine Chocolate which produces excellent fair trade chocolate and supports the development of cocoa farmers in Ghana www.divinechocolate.com
- The Eden Project whose exciting facilities promote sustainable development and inspire millions of visitors each year about the world in which we live www.edenproject.com
- Dwr Cymru/Welsh Water is owned by Glas Cymru a single purpose company with no shareholders and is run solely for the benefit of customers. www.dwrcymru.com
There are some excellent examples of social enterprises in South West Wales.
Social Enterprises operate in a wide range of industries and can be both big and small. What unites them is that they all involve some business or trading activity which allows them to fulfil a clear social benefit.
Social enterprises have four common characteristics:
- The organisation trades
- There is a clear social purpose or social benefit
- It is not-for-private-profit, and uses profit to further its social aims
- There is social or community ownership
