1. Social purpose businesses -- nonprofit, for-profit, a public/private or some combination of the three. These businesses can be new or derived from an existing program:
- "Affirmative" businesses designed specifically to provide permanent jobs for people who are disadvantaged,
- Mission-driven product or service businesses delivering services directly to their users, for example, housing and food services for program clients.
2. Earned income businesses that have an indirect impact on a social need:
- Revenue-generating activities started by nonprofits unrelated to their mission typically created from the organization's under-utilized assets (such as facility downtime, accounting expertise and copyrights) or as conveniences for its clients or patrons (gift shops, parking lots, cafeterias and so on).
- "For-benefit" companies not directly associated with a nonprofit, but created expressly to generate profits that will then be distributed to one or more nonprofit entities (for example, Newman's Own).
3. Business partnerships between nonprofits and for-profits:
- Cause-related marketing, --"Taste of the Nation" (American Express and Share Our Strength)
- Cause-related purchasing,--Boeing's "Philanthropic Work Program" out-sourcing fabrication work to nonprofit employers of the disabled.
4. Other earned income strategies, business ventures and partnerships-- Public-private partnerships for community development (CDC's, CDFI's), entrepreneurial efforts by government agencies (Seattle's Housing Levy that leverages city funds for low and moderate income housing with private and foundation funds), joint ventures between forprofits and nonprofits
Links to some social enterprises and support organizations:
Pioneer Human Services, Seattle,WA
http://www.pioneerhumanserv.com/ New Community Corporation, Newark, NJ
http://www.newcommunity.org/main.htm Social Enterprise Alliance
http://www.se-alliance.org/Index.cfm Fifth Avenue Committee, Brooklyn, NY
http://www.fifthave.org/ FareStart, Seattle, WA
http://www.farestart.org/ REDF, San Francisco, CA
http://www.redf.org/ Community Wealth Ventures, Washington, DC
http://www.communitywealth.com/ Skookum Programs and Jump Rope Co., Port Townsend, WA
http://skookum.org/
See Presentation on Social Entrepreneurs (below)