Social entrepreneurship and Social Enterprise organizations have become a lot more common
over the past 10 to 20 years, but the model and concept of Social Enterprise continues to
mystify a lot of people. So in this video, I'm going to share eight updated 2023 examples of
Social Enterprise organizations out there making an impact! I hope this inspires you! [Music]
Welcome or welcome back! My name is Amber Melanie Smith and I'm a non-profit founder and executive
director who makes these videos here on YouTube to help people learn about how they can make
an impact - whether that's through non-profits, Social Enterprise, socially conscious businesses,
and more. As always I hope that you find this video useful and inspiring and don't forget
to give it a like and subscribe to my channel for more content like this. If you are in the process
of starting a non-profit I have some resources and an online course training on how to do that on my
website FounderToFulltime.com, so you can check that out too. A few years ago I first talked about
this by sharing seven social Enterprise examples to help people better understand how they work so
be sure to check out my original video on this topic over there but as we all know the world
changes and sometimes changes quickly and so there are lots of new examples to share to continue to
to get your creativity going and thinking about how you can apply this model to the work that
you might want to do to make an impact in the world to recap let's just talk really quick about
the concept of the social Enterprise model the idea here is that we're going to use a business
or market-driven approach like selling goods or services to combat a specific social issue while
generating sustainable Revenue now I get this question a lot so I want to clarify that you can
be either a for-profit business or a non-profit organization and still use a social Enterprise
model either way social Enterprise refers to the business model not specifically a legal structure
so it's really flexible and it can be applied to various situations also social Enterprise models
tend to rely more or possibly mostly or even in some cases completely on an earned income Revenue
stream versus charity charitable donations or grants however if you are a non-profit
organization and you have a social Enterprise model within your non-profit you can still accept
donations and apply for Grants too so coming right up I'm going to share eight updated examples of
social Enterprise organizations at work and these are going to be a mix of for-profit and non-profit
examples and for each one I'll state which one that they are so that you can get a sense of how
the model might be at play all right example number one is called Samaritan this from what
I can tell appears to be a for-profit model that is partnered with a non-profit organization the
Samaritan Capital Foundation so this uh is an app and it basically Works to connect people who are
experiencing homelessness with resources and funds to help them them save up to meet basic needs or
even save up enough to move into a permanent home it's so cool that I actually downloaded it on my
phone here so I'll show you it's pretty cool I downloaded it and it's taken a second to load but
you can basically see the profiles of people who are currently experiencing poverty or homelessness
and there's specific needs and their updates about their life and what I really like about it is it's
intended to really make this issue human right if you're connected to someone who's currently
experiencing homelessness on what feels like a social network then you're going to hear their
stories you're going to connect to them as people and hopefully you're going to be more inclined to
offer them encouragement support or if you have the means some kind of uh contribution to help
them get on their feet so very interesting concept here in terms of how they uh generate Revenue they
are partnering with different organizations to uh from what I can tell license and use
the app to get people uh connected to it so that might be one of the ways that they're generating
Revenue second way it generates revenue is it does appear to take a small transaction
fee from the donations that are made through the site totally understandable you know you got to
they're probably paying a vendor to cover the cost of those transactions as well so those are some of
the ways that they're generating Revenue um and they're opening up in different cities one at
a time to sort of pilot test it so go check them out see if they're in your city the second social
Enterprise example I'm going to share today is called First Step Staffing they are a non-profit
organization and they're like an alternative staffing agency that focuses on helping people
experiencing homelessness and poverty to find jobs that can pay good wages so they are providing job
coaching disability services employment matching Transportation support for people who might not
have a vehicle to get to a job until one of their clients can afford to get their own transportation
in terms of Revenue it's not a hundred percent clear from their website how they're generating
their social Enterprise Revenue but their 990s revealed some program service fees that they're
bringing in and so my assumption is that similar to a typical staffing agency they are charging
employers some kind of fee to be providing that support of getting their open positions filled
so pretty interesting model pretty successful and they seem to be doing a lot of good work the third
social Enterprise organization I'm going to to share is called Transcend, and it is a for-profit
business and this is going to be kind of A New Concept to a lot of people so just bear with me
as I try to explain this but basically this is a social Enterprise that aims to reforest the planet
by allowing people to be buried when they die in a way that allows a new Young tree to thrive and
flourish in connection with their burial site so pretty interesting um there's not that I'm part of
this industry or world at all but from what I can tell kind of a lot of dialogue happening around
how can we make death something that we're more comfortable as humans to talk about and how can
we reimagine you know funerals and and burial processes in a way that might help rejuvenate
the planet at the same time so I think that this is coming out of that movement if you go
to their website they explain a little bit more about the actual processes that allow your body
to support the tree from what I understand when you are buried you are fitted with biodegradable
materials that have a sort of reaction with the nutrients and the soil around you that
allow the nutrients to get to the tree that is planted above you faster so super interesting
um the way it generates revenue is by through the burial costs themselves you know just like any
funeral or burial service you'd be paying someone to support those services and also they seem to be
accepting Investments right now too okay example number four is communication service for the deaf
this is a non-profit organization that has apparently several different Enterprises that
are part of it this this non-profit organization's mission is to create a better world for deaf and
hard of hearing people they do this by working with businesses and organizations to make the
workplace more inclusive for deaf and hard of hearing people they also work to Design Technology
Solutions that increase accessibility for this group too so how they generate revenue is they
partner with businesses and employers to it looks like they do some Consulting to help make the
workplace more accessible and also through some of those Technology Solutions perhaps the sale
and revenue generated from those the fifth example I'm going to share is brave souls this souls are
spelled s-o-l-e-s this is a for-profit business that works to recycle tires into wearable shoes
um so it has the the eco-friendly Mission aspect but they also partner with and employ people from
the Dominican Republic to create these shoes and they ensure Fair wages and benefits its revenue is
model is pretty simple they're selling the shoes so they're selling the shoes on their website you
can go get you a pair and check them out there um and so their dual missions of course to um ensure
uh good employment conditions for the people that they're partnering with and that environmentally
friendly mission of recycling those pesky tires the sixth example I'm going to share is called
a shakti-ism uh hopefully I'm pronouncing that correctly this is a non-profit social Enterprise
and their mission is to empower train and employ women in India Bangladesh Nepal and other regions
um so they'll sell the handmade craft items that these women are creating to generate the revenue
and make sure that these women get Fair wages they also have another layer to their social impact and
that they claim on their site they plant a tree for every purchase this seventh example you might
have heard about because they've been kind of in the news a bit over the past couple of years
and it's Goldie blocks this is a for-profit business social Enterprise model and their
social mission is to inspire and introduce young girls to stem or science technology engineering
and math through their educational toys and kits that they sell on their website so of course as I
said their revenues generated through the sale of these toys and kits on their website and they're
contributing all the while to their broader social issue a social mission of combating stereotypes
and these Science and Technology fields and inspiring a new generation of innovators and
inventors and scientists and mathematicians okay the eighth and final example of a social
Enterprise I'm going to share today is called dreamspring this is a non-profit loan agency
those exist here's one example and their mission is to increase access to credit
make loans and provide a community of support around small businesses and entrepreneurs so
that as the name suggests they can make their dreams come to life according to their website
they've already made over 42 000 loans in over 3500 communities and the way that they
generate revenue is like a traditional loan service through interest and loans and so
they probably they have a goal of making sure that those are very reasonable and affordable for these
folks of course because it's we're talking about small businesses and entrepreneurs here
um so that's you know an example of taking a traditional business model and applying it
to addressing a social issue just like you would in a social Enterprise I'd love to hear from you
now is what do you think of this social Enterprise model if you uh currently run a non-profit do you
have some kind of social Enterprise model as part of it already or if you're thinking of starting a
non-profit or starting a business is this a model you would consider why or why not share in the
comments below and as I mentioned before if you are thinking of starting a non-profit check out
the resources on my website FounderToFulltime.com they might be able to help you out I also have
a newsletter for change makers and leaders in the community that you can subscribe subscribe
to the link below this video I send out updates on sometimes funding opportunities news in the
sector stuff like that so check that out subscribe and you can opt out anytime you'd like finally I
have a Facebook group called Change the World or Bust that has thousands of people and say
4,000 ish people from around the world at this point who are in there talking about how they're
making an impact and how um sharing their tips and advice for others in their in their position
so I encourage you to come check us out and join us there too! Once again
I'm Amber Melanie Smith and I hope to see you next time! Thank you! [Music]