Social Entrepreneurship Roslyn Russell RDU

Social Entrepreneurship Social entrepreneurship is the activity of establishing new business ventures to achieve social change. The business utilises creativity and innovation to bring social, financial, service, educational or other community benefits. (Talbot, Tregilgas & Harrison, 2002) Social enterprises are not charities or welfare agencies. They are private businesses established by entrepreneurs with an emphasis on human values rather than just profit. These businesses focus on working with and enhancing the social capital within the community by encouraging participation, inclusion and utilising a bottom-up approach to achieve social change

Elements of Social Enterprise Three core elements: Created to provide benefits for a community Creates opportunities so people can help themselves as well as others Utilises sound commercial business practices to ensure its sustainability i.e. the business will naturally uphold and encourage environmental sustainability as well as ethical considerations

Characteristics of a Social Entrepreneur Not bound by sector norms or traditions Not confined by barriers that stand in the way of their goals Develop new models and pioneer new approaches to enable them to overcome obstacles Take innovative approaches to solve social issues Transform communities through strategic partnerships

Social entrepreneurs “… a path breaker with a powerful idea, who combines visionary and real world problem-solving creativity, has a strong ethical fibre..” “..combines street pragmatism with professional skills..” “ they see opportunities where others only see empty buildings, unemployable people and unvalued resources” “..Radical thinking is what makes social entrepreneurs different from simply ‘good’ people.” “they make markets work for people, not the other way around, and gain strength from a wide network of alliances” “they can ‘boundary ride’ between the various political rhetoric and social paradigms to enthuse all sectors of society”

Where do you find social enterprises? Social entrepreneurs find opportunity in most economic sectors. The growth areas for social enterprises are identified as : Environmental Housing Health and care Information services Public services Financial services Training and business development Manufacturing Food and agriculture

Global context U.K. Community Action Network (CAN) The Stanford Business School Social Entrepreneurship initiative Canadian Centre for Social Entrepreneurship Social and Enterprise Development Innovations (SEDI) The Israeli Greenhouse for Social Entrepreneurship International Institute of Social Entrepreneurship Management (India) Inter-American Development Bank The Initiative on Social Enterprise – Harvard Business School

Australian Context Social Entrepreneurship Network (SEN) Social Ventures Australia (SVA) Asia-Pacific Centre for Philanthropy and Social Investments (Swinburne) RMIT

Example: Ben and Jerry’s Ice-cream

Community Partnership Savings Accounts A matched savings model designed to help people build assets Usually it involves two dollars matched for every dollar saved Account holders take money management and asset training classes while saving for a specific goal An 18 month Community Partnership Savings Accounts Pilot will be run by the Brotherhood of St Laurence and ANZ and will match savings specifically for education- related expenses.

Examples In Canada there is a learn$ave program that has established Individual Development Accounts to promote self-sufficiency among low-income Canadians 4,875 participants 10 locations In USA there are approximately 250 IDA programs that are showing success Also UK and Singapore have similar programs

Australian Program Commences in June 2003 Will include 300 participants Three locations – inner city, outer suburban and regional Lower income participants Specific goal – education expenses for children

Research project Conduct an evaluation program to run concurrently with the pilot Aims: To ensure appropriateness of the program To ensure effectiveness of the program To ensure efficiency of the program

Stages 1. Secondary data analysis Overseas IDA program Australian context 2. Evaluation process Assess individual-level change Implementation analysis Assess the effect on organisation

How? Action research using qualitative techniques Individual interviews Participant focus groups Staff focus groups Quantitative measurements using bank data

Outcomes Reports including: Indication of individual-level change in participant behaviour Patterns of drop-out rates from the program Perceptions of participants in the program Perceptions of staff involved Indication of individual-level change in staff attitudes and learning

Outcomes (cont’d) Intermediate reports on barriers to maintaining participations Identify patterns in drop-out rates