Social enterprise is emerging as the “missing middle” between the traditional worlds of government, nonprofits and business that define themselves as "mission driven organizations", concerned with advancing the well-being of their communities.
Panel Discussion with:
Betsy Schmidt, Director of George Mason University’s Center for Social Entrepreneurship provided an overview of social enterprise as enterprises (nonprofit and for profit) with a mission for making the world a better place. She offered the Social Business Model Canvas as a tool to develop a realistic business model for nonprofits thinking about how to diversify their revenue streams.
Jack Glade, Executive Director of The Tutorial Center in Bennington, spoke about his organization’s transition from a grant funded to fees for service/ grant funded organization over the past decade. His slide gives a snapshot of the change in their service delivery and funding model.
Tiff Bluemle, Executive Director of Vermont Works for Women, cautioned the audience to make sure that social ventures don’t detract from your core mission and offered a number of lessons learned from mixing business with social service delivery.
Dolly Fleming, Mercy Connections‘ Executive Director, spoke of the deliberate process of exploring Mercy’s social enterprise with local business leaders: “Business and commerce needs to be actively engaged in building health communities.” With their help, Mercy Connections is using the Social Enterprise Screening Box to determine the course they should pursue.
http://blog.commongoodvt.org/2014/09/social-enterprise-the-soul-in-the-business-of-nonprofits/
