What is Social Enterprise?
Social enterprises are independent organisations trading for social / ethical purpose, and bringing economic benefits to the communities they work in. Social enterprises exist first and foremost because of their social objectives. However social enterprises also recognise that their business needs to generate surplus income and re-invest in future developments.
The key characteristics of social enterprises are:
Enterprise Orientation - they are directly involved in producing goods or providing services to a market. They aim to be viable trading concerns. For sports social enterprises this could involve renting facilities, managing a leisure service, or running income generating services like a café or bar.
However, while all social enterprises earn money through trading, surpluses are re-invested in the business or social objective.
Social Aims - they have explicit social aims and operate in an ethical way. For sports social enterprises these social aims may include: providing affordable sport to people on low incomes, to improve activity levels amongst those who do not usually do exercise, or to support unemployed people into sports careers.
Many social enterprises are also characterised by their social ownership. They are autonomous organisations whose governance and ownership structures are normally based on participation by stakeholder groups (e.g. employees, users, clients, local community groups and social investors). They are accountable to their stakeholders and the wider community for their social, environmental and economic impact.
For more information
Download the
Social Enterprise Bulletin which highlights some excellent examples of sports social enterprise. and the
Social Enterprise Kitbag