“Social enterprises are businesses with a positive social or environmental impact. They aren’t “business-like” companies. They aren’t charities that make some money. They are businesses, period.” Louise Aitken – the Ākina Foundation.

NFP Resource receives a number of enquiries about Social Enterprises (see this earlier post) and it is apparent that the link or difference between a Social enterprise and a charity is not always clear.  DIA Charities Services recently provided a blog post entitled ‘Social enterprise and Charity’.

The DIA Charities post begins “Last year Christchurch hosted the Social Enterprise World Forum, where social enterprises from all over the world came together to share wisdom, build networks, and learn how social enterprises can be used to drive positive social change.

Social enterprise means a lot of different things to different people. Essentially, it is about organisations using commercial methods to support social or environmental goals.

The support for social enterprises has been raised as a particular issue at our Sector User Group, and I thought it would be useful to discuss how social enterprises can register as a charity….”  <Read the whole post>