A social enterprise is an organization which is comprised of social entrepreneurs. Social entrepreneurs look for opportunities to apply commercial strategies to maximize social value instead of shareholders’ profits. One of the aims of a social enterprise is help low-income labors fight poverty. For example, Salem Kassahun is a social entrepreneur, and he owns Salem’s Ethiopia, which is a fair trade operation, making profits while respecting fair labor practices so it enriches the lives of its workers.
Even if the United Nations was fully funded, it still needs social enterprises. Most of private companies just care about their total profits, and they do not respect the environment. For example, some of private companies release toxic discharge to a lake directly without any filtration in order to save money. The larger amount of toxic discharge is released, the worse the environment will be.
Besides, there must be several sweatshops existing in every country that has seat in the UN. Labors work for long hours per day at very low wages, and the work places are under poor conditions which have no job security. As a result, labors’ living standards are very poor.
A social enterprise tackles these major social issues. No matter whether it is for-profit or not, it does anything that is effective. “You need to know how to manage your money, manage your staff and manage your ideas,” said Gatete. Social entrepreneurs have specific goals about how to fundamentally improve society. For example, donating their money to charities or operating social business can be an effective way.
References:
http://news.ubc.ca/2014/06/30/upward-arc/
http://skollworldforum.org/about/what-is-social-entrepreneurship/