Ever heard of Social Enterprise?

[Cheryl Baumgartner CITRMS]

You may or may not have heard the phrases "Social Enterprise" or "Social Entrepreneurship". They both mean the exact same thing and it's something that has been going on for decades. It's also a way to more effectively market your wares. So what is it, how do you market by using it? Glad you asked.

I'm going to throw a few things out to you and I want you to think, have I ever heard of this:
Girl Scout Cookies
Goodwill Thrift Stores
Selling through a child's school
Save the_______(insert whichever organization you wish) return address labels
Easter Seals

All of these are examples of social enterprise at work. In each case a "social" program has incorporated business into the mix to generate revenue to carry out their mission. The Girl Scouts are a perfect example of how you can use social enterprise to increase your revenue. Let's take a close look at how it works.

The Girls scouts are a wonderful organization dedicated to helping young girls grow into responsible young ladies. They do this through guidance, mentoring, group activities and community involvement. A great mission (Yes shameless plug for the Girls Scouts from a former scout), but all of these things take money so the question is how do the Girls Scouts raise money? On the other hand there is a bakery that makes the best thin mints I've ever had, that bakery needs to get their product into the hands of the consumer. Traditionally, the bakery would contract with a distributor/retailer to sell the product through a store. The bakery sells the product to the distributor at wholesale cost and then it gets marked up to a retail cost which generates the distributor,s profits, of course doing it the traditional way adds other costs (transport, advertising etc) to the cost of the product.

Instead of doing it the traditional way the bakery has done things unconventionally, they have entered into a social enterprise agreement with the Girl Scouts. The bakery produces the product and the Girl Scouts provide the advertising and sales force. The two split the profits along an agreed upon ratio. So the bakery is getting it's product into the hands of the consumer and the Girls Scouts are generating revenue. More importantly the consumer is "donating" to a worthy cause. But rather than just giving away money the consumer is also getting value for his dollar.

This can be a very easy way to increase your bottom line, all you need is a reasonable priced product or service and a willing non profit partner. There's a very good book available that outlines Social enterprise called "Enterprising Non-Profits" by J Gregory Dees, Jed Emerson and Peter Economy. Pick up a copy and consider creating a social enterprise partnership.

[David C Schupbach]

Those GS 'thin mints' should be illegal!! They get a huge chunk of change from me every time, because they are as addictive as crack!

That's an interesting, and totally accurate perception of Social Marketing though, Like King Solomon said: There is nothing new under the sun.

[Cheryl Baumgartner CITRMS]

No there isn't they just change the wrapping and I guess we need to be members of GS Cookies Anonymous
Hello my name is Cheryl and I'm a thin mint addict.....

[Eric Smith]

hmmmmm, ironic isn't it... the more thin mints we eat, the thicker we get :)

[Cheryl Baumgartner CITRMS]

Yes we do and those GS thin mints are just so good.

But this is social enterprise thing is something I'm working very hard on. I normally work with elder care services or churches, but any non profit group looking for a way to make money or in their words generate revenue can benefit.

[Arthur Webster]

I must be missing something here.
I am involved in some very heavy social enterprises but they are nothing at all to do with business - they are to do with saving lives, enhancing the living conditions of people like me who have not learnt to cope and generally adding to the society in which I live.
It has never occured to me that social enterprise should ever be lumped into 'business' because it is as natural to me as breathing - indeed, I have not heard this term 'social enterprise' before.
Fund raising for NPOs, yes, heard of that.
Doing good works for those who are not able to cope, yes, heard of that.
Charitable donating, yes, heard of that.
Social enterprise?
It puts me in mind of those people who wear stickers or ribbons to show that they support or have donated to an organisation and it makes me very sad.
If I am not mistaken, what is being discussed here has its' roots in the efforts of people to support organisations (or even themselves) - something that used to be done but seldom talked about - even taken for granted!.
It seems to me that people of today find their lives so mundane that they have to crow about anything they do that does not involve the TV remote control.
The world is a sad place when even charitable acts have to be given a spurious label.
I'm sure the bakery did not intend to use their thin mints to show how 'good' they were - they simply saw a local need and entered into an agreement that was mutually beneficial in answering that need.

[David C Schupbach]

I think I am missing your point in some way Arthur, although I (think I) see what you are saying on the surface... That people used to just help each other without thinking of it as business, or making business out of it.

And with that I agree! Whatever happened to the days when our code of ethics was such that neighbors just helped each other without needing to be prompted? When the reward was the sense of gratification experienced by having helped one's fellow man.

I guess that's a rhetorical question though, as wondering where the day has gone won't bring it back.

So to look at the positives: Social Enterprise provides a lesser sense of the same gratification, as people are separated from those they help by an organizational entity, however the sheer number of people benefiting is greater.

Today to get the 'up close and personal' sense of gratification, one would have to volunteer for something. Or, we could move as a society back towards helping our neighbor.

[Cheryl Baumgartner CITRMS]

I think the point you missed Arthur is that non-profits need money to perform their mission, they have to get that money somewhere. They can beg for donations, which is not very effective when people are trying to put food on the table and take care of their families or they can partner with a business to generate the revenue by giving their donors value for the dollar through a product.

Somewhere in the neighborhood of 60% of non-profit operating capital is generated through social enterprise programs.as the economy worsens non profits are going to have to replace the donations people are not giving with something.

Every non profit out there is involved in social enterprise, that's exactly what fund raising is only an a smaller level.

[Arthur Webster]

It's also a way to more effectively market your wares. So what is it, how do you market by using it? Glad you asked.

Doesn't this sound just like some gormless guru who comes up with a bright idea to cripple a market place that is doing well but will not stand over exploitation by wannabe copy cats?

Membership sites! Once a pleasure to join because there was a mutual benefit but now devalued by guru instant membership site programmes.

Review sites! Once a nice source of good information from people qualified to supply it but now reduced to one more over utilised avenue of eluding success.

Social Sites! Now nothing but spam traps and disappointed old coots who thought there might be something to enjoy.

I have selected the quote from the original post so you can see what really made me feel that this is another case of "here we go again"!

When you use a wedge to split a tree trunk, anybody who didn't understand the laws that were being brought into action would probably gaze in amazement as the trunk was sundered.

Old Coots have seen it all before - and despair.

[Cheryl Baumgartner CITRMS]

Let me break this down to it's most basic form

Every non-profit/charity in the world needs two things in order to function
1. A mission-they see a need and attempt to fill it
2. An income stream-they cannot fill their mission without money

The mission is easy enough, what efforts do they need to perform to fill the mission. Once they figure that out then fine but now they need the money to fill the mission, they have three options
1. Ask for donations
2. Secure grants
3. Figure out a way to generate income-in order to generate income you need a product or service.

It's just that simple. Generating income means you are not dependent on people having extra money they are willing to just give away , nor are you bound by red tape and regulations of a third party that gives you a grant. You are free to make the decisions on how the money is spent to fill your mission.

The principle of social enterprise has been in effect for decades, it's nothing new. It's just not understood.

[Arthur Webster]

Exactly, Cheryl,

The principal has been around for centuries as have all the basic principals of commerce and there is absolutely no benefit to anybody here in reiterating it.

"This can be a very easy way to increase your bottom line" Another line that set my teeth on edge because I have read the opening post very carefully and it is about YOUR business. It is about how to improve YOUR bottom line.

The name of this group is "unfettered" but already 25% of the categories in the forum are business related. Are we so living up our own rear orifices that we simply cannot write about something that does not involve business at all? (Looking at this opening post, I would have been far happier to see a nice story about elements of a local community coming together to try to ease a problem with absolutely no hints at all that the situation is exploitable - to improve your bottom line.)

I go back to my tree trunk splitting analogy - it isn't the big hammers that split the trunk - it is the sharp end of the wedge.

[Cheryl Baumgartner CITRMS]

No this is not about my business this is about any member's business and a marketing method they may not have heard of or don't realize they can implement hence, it's inclusion in the business section of the forum.

I am not promoting myself, but showing others a method that may work for them. While you may not like social enterprise it is becoming not only viable as a method of marketing your business but also in some cases necessary for the survival of the social programs themselves.

If you have dozens of people willing to deliver food to shut ins but cannot afford to purchase the food, what are you accomplishing? As much as we would like to be able to see charitable programs running along nicely, it will always come down to money. Without the money to fund your program you don't have a program, you have a good idea that you cannot implement. That's why social organizations are willing to partner with businesses, to have the cash flow to operate.

Yes we are here socializing that means we are not spamming everyone with our business. However we are here to help each other, letting each other know of innovative ways to increase our business, letting others know when we find something that works is all a part of helping each other.

[Arthur Webster]

I'm sorry, Cheryl,

You are totally missing the point I am making.

Already the vast majority of posts in Unfettered ARE TO DO WITH BUSINESS - and I don't care whose business.

When David started this group I think the whole idea was to get away from this idea that the only things worth talking about were to do with business - hence Unfettered.

We have seen what happens when groups like this go down that road - THEY DIE!