Business for the community

Commercial business takes its motivation from the 'bottom line' - maximising profits from its activities. The Social Enterprise sector is driven by another vision - the primary reason for its existence is social benefit, although like any other business it must generate sufficient revenue to survive.

The sector defies simple description: social enterprises cover many areas of work: fair trade initiatives with developing countries, employment opportunities in deprived areas; the provision of leisure and recreational services to the wider local community.

Because they are not purely profit-driven, social enterprises have particular needs with regard to fund-raising, marketing, and organisational structure. The right kind of support from external agencies can be vital to their long-term future. Many start life as small business with a few employees, others may be larger organisations looking to focus on a particular social role. Increasingly, local authority mainstream services are open to procurement by dedicated social enterprises.

Community Viewfinders' core team have been pioneers in establishing and supporting a wide variety of social enterprises over the last twenty years. A number of the initiatives are today well-established and recognised as innovative solutions to entrenched social problems. We are at present involved both in reviewing social enterprise development strategies, and in proposing bold new initiatives - in Bromley we recently developed plans for a range of social enterprise businesses which will provide training and employment for local people with learning disabilities.

Return to top