The concept of social enterprise has become a widely discussed topic over recent years. Often confused with charities, social enterprises are similar in their mission-based focus, but differ in that they follow a market-based strategy and are profit motivated.
In Mike Cassidy’s blog post “Why Nonprofits Should Fear Social Enterprise” in his blog Leadership For Good, he argues that nonprofits should “adopt some of the qualities of social enterprises.” Cassidy believes social enterprises are better than nonprofits because they have a lasting social mission while generating revenue and goodwill simultaneously.
Cassidy argues that the efficiency of the social enterprise are due to the profit-motivation, which allow them to function as a business., whereas nonprofits require grants, donations, and contacts.
While Cassidy ranks social enterprises above charities, it is still unknown if social enterprises are something for charities to fear. Because of the profit based motivation of a social enterprise, charities will always have the upper hand in having a solely mission based motivation. I believe that both are equally good for they both work towards improving the world. At the end of the day, both a social enterprise and a charity have a social mission which they are geared towards changing/fixing.
Sources: (Leadership For Good, Cassidy’s Blog Post)
