Coalition challenges Venturesome's social enterprise definitions 1

Finance | Ian Allsop | 5 Aug 2008

The Social Enterprise Coalition (SEC) has disputed the definitions used in the three models of social enterprise identified in Venturesome’s paper on the subject last week.

Speaking to Charity News Alert, SEC chief executive Jonathan Bland said: “As the social enterprise movement continues to gain momentum, there is an understandable desire to want concrete definitions, but input from the movement is essential to be sure we get it right.”

SEC has pointed out that Venturesome’s first model includes corporate social responsibility programmes, such as a hedge fund that gives a slice of its profits to a charitable foundation. Bland said: “Although they are an important and growing part of many businesses, they are not social enterprises. A social or environmental mission is absolutely central to a social enterprise. It is not just one aspect of it. Additionally, employee and co-operative ownership are not included in the models, nor is the idea of investing in people.”

Bland added that he agreed that more needed to be done to clarify investors’ understanding of social enterprise business models, and welcomed the debate that Venturesome’s paper will provoke.

SEC has recently launched ‘the identity project’, a grassroots initiative to assess the common values of the movement. Caroline Borge, SEC’s senior press officer, described it as a “movement-led public debate to define the values, language and culture” of social enterprise. “We want to be able to explain clearly, consistently and coherently why our diverse membership share the ideals of social enterprise.”

Who's Who: Ian Allsop

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Jeff Mowatt
Director
People-Centered Economic Development
20 Aug 2008

I offer a link to a strategy paper for social enterprise which includes the definitions created by Kim Alter in the publication 'Social Enterprise Typology' published in April 2006.

www.p-ced.com/projects/ukraine/national/

Vying for the position of authority in the third sector, isn't really what SE is supposed to be about, is it?

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