what is social entrepreneurism?
One of the biggest challenges to THINQ POSITIVE is concisely but adequately stating what we do. A way to approach this is to begin by describing the emerging business sector in which we fall. A growing movement over the last several years called “social entrepreneurism” best describes THINQ POSTIVE’s mindset and business category. Below is an article taken from CompassPoint Non Profit Services that does an excellent job of defining the field and the philosophy driving the business.
What is social entrepreneurism?
“I hear a lot of people use really similar phrases to describe what sound like the same things: venture development, community wealth creation, social ventures, social entrepreneurs, social entrepreneurship, nonprofit enterprise, affirmative business, social purpose business, and microenterprise? What are the differences and similarities?”Given that the emerging field of social entrepreneurism has grown out of a number of fields, including business, social welfare, community development, community service and international development, it is no wonder there are a variety of approaches and various terms to describe the work in which we are engaged!
At its core, people are talking about two things: individuals and organizations. Individuals in this field are often called social entrepreneurs. These people engage in their work in a variety of innovative ways: through for-profit companies which pursue socially responsible business practice; through nonprofit organizations operating ventures which create economic opportunity for others; and through nonprofit organizations which are founded as an innovative response to a particular social issue or cause. In all fairness, the people who plan, launch and manage all these types of organizations could be called Social Entrepreneurs. The key point here is that Social Entrepreneurs are people who attempt to take innovative approaches to social and other issues, most often with the use of traditional business skills applied in order to achieve some type of social goal.
From an organizational perspective, there are two forms of social entrepreneurship: nonprofit and for-profit. In the for-profit arena, a corporation that pursues “enlightened capitalism” could be said to be a socially responsible business. The Social Venture Network and Business for Social Responsibility both work with such corporations and business people. The nonprofit sector is itself, quite large and diverse (as are the resources available to them– see for example, CompassPoint Nonprofit Services). Some nonprofits are focused on the goal of assisting individuals in launching their own small, for-profit businesses. The practice of assisting individuals who are members of “disadvantaged” communities to start their own businesses is referred to as microenterprise orself-employment. The Association for Enterprise Opportunity works to assist nonprofits in the United States that are pursuing self-employment strategies.
Terms such as a nonprofit enterprise, social purpose venture, community wealth venture and affirmative business, all speak to the practice of nonprofit organizations operating ventures to create economic value and/or create supported employment and training opportunities to those transitioning into the economic mainstream. In general, these efforts could be thought of as spanning a continuum ranging from those that engage in fee-for-service activities, to those that engage in a variety of corporate/nonprofit partnerships (such as cause-related marketing or “cross-branding” efforts), to those which operate revenue generating ventures employing a particular client population. In discussing any given organization’s efforts, it is obviously important to understand how they view themselves along that continuum. For example, the work of the Roberts Enterprise Development Fund focuses primarily upon supporting nonprofits engaged in enterprise creation as a way of providing transitional and permanent employment to homeless and very low-income individuals.
a special thanks to our initial supporters
Thanks very much to the generosity of Adobe Systems, Lee Reynolds of Clampitt Paper and Claudia Jacober of Neenah Paper, THINQ POSITIVE is set for our internal software needs as well as paper for out letterhead, business cards and envelope system. All our papers used are FSC Certified to be environmentally friendly with 100% post consumer waste. If you have need of any business papers or stationary needs, we would highly endorse contacting one of the above representatives. Thanks for helping us get started.