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WHO IS CREATING SOCIAL ENTERPRISE?

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What is Social Enterprise?

A social enterprise or social business is a business with specific social objectives that serve its primary purpose. Social enterprises seek to maximize profits while maximizing benefits to society and the environment, and the profits are principally used to fund social programs.

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If you own a business, you could partner with a nonprofit, food pantry (if applicable), or other charity and donate your time, money, or products. ��If you are starting from the ground up, the first step may be to identify a problem and your solution to it, explain to potential funders your action plan, and make sure you have experts to back up and support your endeavor.�

How Can You Start a Social Enterprise?

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How do social enterprises make money?ďż˝

  • Profits gained from the sale of their popular household products, such kitchen cleaners, floor cleaners, bathroom cleaners and fabric care products are channeled to their partner stakeholders, who consist of charities such as Rumah Aman, Nasam and several others.

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  • Good Eggs. This online grocery brings the farmers market to your front door--giving people access to local, fresh, sustainable foods. Their belief is that better food leads to a better world, and their mission to support local food systems is both socially responsible and environmentally optimal.
  • Indiegogo. Their mission statement says it all: empower everyone to change the world, one idea at a time. By helping artists, entrepreneurs, and dreamers of every kind bring their visions to life, they create connection and community for both funders and makers.
  • Sanergy. Based in Kenya, they are working tirelessly to solve the sanitation crisis that plagues the country's urban slums. The social entrepreneurial component stems from the way they are tackling the issue--by creating a dense network of small-scale sanitation centers and converting this waste into useful byproducts, such as organic fertilizer and renewable energy.

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  • Warby Parker. This company represents a perfect example of the double bottom line. From the beginning, Warby Parker set out to be a socially conscious business, mandating that for every pair of eyeglasses sold, one would be donated.
  • GoldieBlox. I dare you not to fall in love with GoldieBlox. Not only is their mission to create toys that inspire girls to pursue careers in engineering and technology but they also make a product that even I want to play with.
  • Uncommon Goods. On the hunt for holiday gifts? Explore this excellent online and catalog retailer for well-made presents with a little extra purpose. A certified B Corp, Uncommon Goods places a premium on sustainability, featuring socially and environmentally responsible products from artists and small manufacturers. 
  • Lush. This luscious (pun intended) cosmetics company leads with environmental awareness and ethical consumerism. Lush products are "naked," or free of packaging, as they make it their mission to make the world better for "people, animals and the environment." And they've given away almost $6 million to environmental and other worthy causes in the last seven years. 
  • Adobe Systems. Not all socially conscious companies are small(ish) or startup(ish). When Fortune 500 companies align business practices to environmental purposes, the impact can be significant. And with a goal of achieving global carbon neutrality by 2015, Adobe is setting an example. By marrying purpose and profit, these innovative companies address social and environmental challenges in a way that is financially sustainable--a virtuous cycle that benefits all involved.

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Social enterprise as a company which reinvests profits in the business or the local community, putting priority on pursuing social purposes rather than on maximizing profits for shareholders or the owner of the company.

In addition, it categorizes

1. Social service provision type: The main purpose of the enterprise is to provide vulnerable social groups with social services.

2. Job creation type: The main purpose of the enterprise is to offer jobs to vulnerable social groups.

3. Mixed type: Social service provision type + Job creation type

4. Local Community Contribution Type: An enterprise which contributes to the improvement in the quality of life of the local community.

5. Other (Creative/Innovative) type: A social enterprise of which realization of social purposes is difficult to judge based on of the ratio of employment or provision of social service.

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 �Top 5 Most Innovative And Impactful Social Enterprises�

  • 1. The Movement: ME to WE
  • One of the most successful and impactful social enterprises of this generation, ME to WE is a social enterprise that provides Fairtrade products and global volunteer trips to a mostly millennial audience. It was launched in 2006 by two Canadian brothers and has grown very rapidly, now engaging millions of consumers and beneficiaries around the world.
  • 2. The Godfather: Ashoka
  • Bill Drayton is considered the godfather of social entrepreneurs,. Since 1981, his organization, Ashoka, has been supporting leading social enterprises around the world. Ashoka has built a formidable network but their ultimate goal is to help build a world where everyone can make a change and every person has the power and ability to contribute towards making positive changes in the world.
  • One of the things that Ashoka does best is their youth focus - their commitment to working with and influencing the younger generations and even putting them in charge of different initiatives.

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  • 3. The Financier: Grameen Bank
  • Muhammad Yunus launched Grameen Bank – “the bank for the poor” in 1976, and essentially started the microcredit revolution. For over 40 years, he’s demonstrated the power of business solutions to tackle underlying causes of poverty, by providing small loans and banking opportunities to small business operators around the globe without requiring collateral. Loans dispersed amount to $24 billion, among 9 million borrowers. That’s no chump change.
  • 4. The Farmer: Babban Gona
  • Like the some of the other social enterprises in this list, Babban Gona also wants to make a real impact on the future by focusing on the younger generation; to achieve this in a country that has a 50% youth unemployment rate, they offer agricultural training for young people to help empower them and show them how they can make more money from their crops. After all, the best way to change the world is to help the younger generations through great education.
  • 5. The Modernizer: Goodwill
  • Goodwill is most famous for thrift stores that bring us Halloween costumes and 90s grunge revival outfits. You can even hunt for vintage gold jewelry, designer handbags or mid-century musical instruments on shopgoodwill.com. Old school turned new school. But they do so much more than that: they also bring employment opportunities for at-risk individuals, job training and other community-based programs to help the people who are somehow prevented from getting a job.

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Key Skills of Successful Social Entrepreneurs

  • 1. Leadership: These people take initiative and action to solve problems (rather than complaining about what’s wrong).
  • 2. Optimism: These people are confident that they can achieve a bold vision, even when many other people doubt them. They have a strong sense of self-efficacy and a belief that they have control to change their circumstances.
  • 3. Grit: This is a combination of perseverance, passion, and hard work—the relentless drive to achieve goals, complete commitment to achieving their task.
  • 4. Resilience in the face of adversities, obstacles, challenges, and failures: When things fall apart, these people rise to the occasion. They thrive in the most ferocious storms. They see failures as valuable feedback.
  • 5. Creativity and innovation: These people see new possibilities and think in unconventional ways. They see connections and patterns where few other people would imagine.
  • 6. Empathy: These people are able to put themselves in the shoes of others, and imagine perspectives other than their own; this is one of the most valuable qualities for understanding the needs of others whom they serve.
  • 7. Emotional and social intelligence: These people are excellent at connecting with others and building strong relationships.

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The 10 Most Successful Social Entrepreneursďż˝

  • Globally, a new business model has emerged that meshes businesses with governmental and social organizations. Nonprofits and for-profit businesses can team up to form a hybrid business model, led by a new generation of social entrepreneurs. These leaders successfully tackle social issues while generating profit for shareholders.

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1. Bill Drayton�Bill Drayton is recognized as one of the pioneering social entrepreneurs of our time. Drayton founded Ashoka: Innovators for the Public in 1980, which takes a multifaceted approach to finding and supporting social entrepreneurs globally. Drayton also serves as chair of the board for Get America Working! and Youth Venture�

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2. Rachel Brathen

" Rachel hopes to connect teachers with people in the online community who need healing. “What if social media could become a social mission?” asks Brathen. Her online channel oneoeight.tv was an “online studio” that offered health, yoga, and meditation services.

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3. Shiza Shahid

As co-founder and global ambassador of the Malala Fund, Shiza Shahid, manages business operations for Malala Yousafzai, the teenager who became the youngest winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014.. Shahid created the Malala Fund, which helps empower women and girls by advocating and spreading access to education.

4. Blake Mycoskie

After a trip to Argentina in 2006, Mycoskie became the chief shoe giver and founder of TOMS Shoes, using some of his own money to launch the company. TOMS pledged to donate one pair of shoes for every one sold, and now expands the “One-For-One” campaign to support water, sight, birth, and anti-bullying initiatives. Through the TOMS brand, Mycoskie has raised awareness about issues like global poverty and health.

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5. Scott Harrison

 Harrison founded charity: water, a nonprofit that provides safe and potable drinking water in 29 countries around the world. As of 2020, the organization had fulfilled 91,414 projects in developing countries. In 2020 alone, charity: water raised $55.4 million.

6. Muhammad Yunus

Professor Muhammad Yunus is renowned for the popularization of microfinance and microcredit, which serve as the cornerstones of the Grameen Bank, founded in 1983. In 2006, Yunus was awarded the Nobel Prize for creating the Grameen Bank, which is based on the principles of trust and solidarity to empower villagers with the funding to pull themselves out of poverty.

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7. Jeffrey Hollender

Jeffrey Hollender is well known as the former chief executive officer (CEO) and co-founder of Seventh Generation, a popular business for natural products.

8. Xavier Helgesen, Christopher “Kreece” Fuchs, and Jeff Kurtzman

These three co-founders of Better World Books—a B-Corp online bookstore that funds global literacy—all deserve recognition as successful social entrepreneurs.

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9. Marc Koska

Marc Koska re-designed medical tools, introducing a non-reusable, inexpensive syringe to be used in under-funded clinics. This innovation safeguards against the transmission of blood-borne diseases. Koska founded the SafePoint Trust in 2006, which delivered 4 billion safe injections in 40 countries via his "auto-disable" syringes. The Schwab Foundation Social Entrepreneurs of the Year in 2015 cited Koska for his pioneering solution to a world health issue. The World Health Organization (WHO) announced a global policy on safe injections in February of 2015.

10. Sanjit “Bunker” Roy

He founded Barefoot College in 1972, a solar-powered college for the poor. Roy describes Barefoot College as “the only college where the teacher is the learner and the learner is the teacher."

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SOURCES