Nathan Gwilliam Blog :: e-Business, Social Enterprise, Faith

One of the focuses of this blog is “social enterprise”. My good friend, Ward Andrews, recently asked me to define this term and mission of my blog. A social enterprise is a business (for-profit or non-profit) which has a socially driven mission. For example, Adoption.com, is a website which operates a photolisting of children waiting to be adopted, a registry of adoptees and birthparents hoping to be reunited, and a large online adoption support group, among a variety of other services. Adoption.com is focused on making a difference socially, and generates revenues so that it has the resources to achieve its’ mission. (Disclaimer: Adoption.com is operated by Adoption Media, LLC, where I serve as CEO.)

Social enterprises are generally responsible to produce targets financially, socially, and often environmentally. Often, a portion of the profits from the social enterprise are used to support charity aims. For example, with Adoption.com, the foster child photolisting, reunion registry and online support group are almost completely free community services. We generate revenue primarily through advertising sponsorships, which then allows these services to be offered for free to help children and families. Since Adoption.com is a for-profit website, it is actually categorized as “social entrepreneurship”, which is a subset of social enterprise.

The Social Enterprise Alliance defines social enterprise as: “An organization or venture that advances its social mission through entrepreneurial earned income strategies.”

Sometimes people criticize social enterprises, such as Adoption.com, saying that they profit off of a charitable cause. The other side to that argument, however, is that social enterprises find a way to generate revenue so they are able to make a difference socially that would probably not be able to happen otherwise. For example, we have always felt it is better to put adoption agency advertising sponsorships on adoption photolistings so that state agencies and adoptive parents can use these services free of charge, and we can help as many children as possible find families.

The REDF Foundation pioneered Social Return on Investment Analysis through its’ funding of social enterprises. Working Assets created a social enterprise model that generates donations to organizations when customers use services such as long distance and credit cards. Through this program, Working Assets has raised more than $50 million for non-profit organizations such as Amnesty International and Doctors Without Borders.

The Social Enterprise Reporter publishes social enterprise news. The Business as Mission Network provides news, resources and tools to turn a business into a great ministry.

Several MBA programs have added social enterprise programs, such as the Harvard Business School Social Enterprise Initiative . Some day I would like to develop a Social Enterprise program at the BYU Marriott School, and help train the next generation of social entrepreneurs and non-profit leaders.

Richard Miller recently sent me a link to an interview about social enterprise with Pierre Omidyar, the founder of eBay. Click here for the interview. Pierre says eBay was a social success because it increased trust globally. Pierre feels that any non-profit organization with the same funding would not have been able to affect as much good (worldwide increase in “trust”) as the peer-to-peer eBay model. He is now interested in investing in for-profit companies that “only do social good if they are successful and are only successful if they do social good.”

It is a tremendously rewarding blessing to be able to work in the social enterprise field, and be able to make a difference and a living at the same time.

Posted on June 20th, 2007 by admin
Filed under: Adoption, BYU Marriott School, Education, Entrepreneurship, Social Enterprise, e-Business