The social enterprise sector has been gaining momentum in the UK, and it is now being followed by the US and other countries
The social investment sector in Britain has gathered much momentum over the last year and changes to the financial services bill (which should be more considerate of the social enterprise sector) should bring even more focus on the sector.
It is not surprising, then, that other countries have been watching the UK closely, including the US, where Jonathan Greenblatt, special adviser to president Barack Obama, said the country had been inspired by social bonds in the UK and was now trialing its own.
Goldman Sachs, mayor Michael Bloomberg's office and a number of other organisations have set up the US bond with the aim of reducing re-offending in New York.
Paula Woodman, the British Council's adviser for enterprise and society, says the council works in more than 100 countries and notes that several are studying impact investing in the UK, particularly countries in south-east Asia, she says.
It's no secret that Britain is increasingly seen as a world leader in social enterprise for a number of reasons, and the movement across the UK has lots of learning to share or sell.
Following a social investment mission to the White House last October, Social Enterprise's UK director of business and enterprise, Nick Temple, wrote in his blog![ext]()
: "At Social Enterprise UK, the fact that there is huge international interest in the UK social enterprise movement is inescapable. This week alone has included our policy team meeting with Japanese academics, a request from eastern Europe to help develop a social enterprise programme, and three separate lines of enquiry from the Caribbean, the Antipodes and central Europe from the fledgling equivalents of Social Enterprise UK for support and advice.
"The UK is viewed as a leader in having developed an ecosystem (legal, financial, support etc) for social enterprise, and the rest of the world is keen to learn."
More and more businesses and organisations in the sector are offering their knowledge and business models overseas, sometimes bringing in several hundred pounds for a learning visit, for example.
There's Social Enterprise UK which has a strategic partnership with the British Council to spread knowledge from the UK social enterprise and social investment sector overseas. And, like other UK social enterprise bodies, it also regularly hosts social enterprise delegates from abroad.
As we enter a new year, social enterprise crowd-funding platform Buzzbank![ext]()
is licensing its system to be used in South Africa by a project called ThundAFund. And, those behind the Social Enterprise Mark are speaking to countries overseas. In particular, the mark team is in talks with David Living at the Payroll Giving Foundation in New Zealand, who is interested in using the stamp in his country.
Tommy Hutchinson, founder of i-genius![ext]()
– a world-wide community of social entrepreneurs – runs social enterprise knowledge tours and also writes social enterprise university courses for countries overseas, with course content that looks at the UK, and sometimes brings foreign students to the UK to observe the sector.
He believes Britain is of interest to the world because it has social enterprise in every sector, from technology to healthcare and recycling.
I-genius has members in more than 200 countries and Hutchinson often witnesses trends. "At the moment, we see a lot of interest from countries such as Turkey, Libya, Egypt, Serbia and Croatia, where there are really big pushes towards social change. They're particularly interested learning more about what role government can play in supporting social enterprise," he says.
Rizwan Tayabali, a social enterprise consultant, spent half his youth in India and the other half in the UK and now lives in Malaysia. For several years he's been travelling around South America, Asia and Africa giving pro-bono support to charities and social enterprises, and is writing a book on his experiences.
He agrees that the connections between British state and social enterprise, and the general connectedness of the sector are the envy of many countries.
"The real positives from the UK that other countries would perhaps like to emulate, are the state and systemic engagement with social enterprise, the infrastructure of the sector and the strong cultural value, encouragement, funding and kudos associated with socially meaningful endeavours you get in the UK. There's increasing cohesion between all the major sectors – social, commercial, financial and governmental in achieving change," says Tayabali.
While the UK is still very much exploring business model options for social enterprises, we do have a few to choose from, and other countries want to know about these. In particular the CIC model, says Jonathan Bland, founder of Social Businesses International (SBI), which works on knowledge sharing with a number of countries. France and Italy are particularly curious at the moment, he says.
Flaviano Zandonai, communications officer at the European research institute on co-operatives and social enterprise, based in Italy, has been working with SBI on exchanging ideas. In particular, he appreciates the light touch of the CIC regulator in the UK, he says. "The Italian law on social enterprise is too bureaucratic and without any promotion from the government."
Other areas of interest for Italy, he says, are impact investing, social bonds, the "ecosystem" of support and community assets.
Bland says the UK can also learn from other countries, and that SBI is interested in the consortia model for social business in Italy, for example.
However, one of the big areas where the UK can capitalise is with its specialist knowledge of social enterprises delivering public services. "The UK is ahead in a number of areas, including innovation in public service delivery models," says Bland. "Next October we'll be hosting a two day event in the UK focused specifically on sharing the secrets on social enterprise in public service delivery with the rest of Europe."
However, the UK doesn't necessarily have a perfect social enterprise sector which deserves fully emulating. Hutchinson, from i-genius comments: "Less good is the UK's ability to turn new ventures into sustainable businesses and one reason for this is that despite much talk, the finance institutions, including most of the social investors, are abysmal and have shown little interest in trying to really meet the needs of social entrepreneurs."
Tayabali also believes that Britain is obsessed with new ventures and with over-hyping itself. "I think the UK is tied into a culture where it's mostly only new and exciting social businesses that get the attention, as well as funding and social investment. Those who finance the sector seem to need to believe that what they're supporting is always going to be the next big thing and I think it makes UK social enterprises feel as though they have to constantly overplay what they're doing," he says.
"I find that every social enterprise in the UK talks about being transformational, but being transformational takes a lot more than selling a new gadget. You have to be at the heart of communities for a long, long time. I think more diligence and rigour is required to identify and focus support on enterprises that have true potential to create change."
*This content is brought to you by Guardian Professional. To join the social enterprise network, click here.* Reported by guardian.co.uk 1 day ago.
The social investment sector in Britain has gathered much momentum over the last year and changes to the financial services bill (which should be more considerate of the social enterprise sector) should bring even more focus on the sector.
It is not surprising, then, that other countries have been watching the UK closely, including the US, where Jonathan Greenblatt, special adviser to president Barack Obama, said the country had been inspired by social bonds in the UK and was now trialing its own.
Goldman Sachs, mayor Michael Bloomberg's office and a number of other organisations have set up the US bond with the aim of reducing re-offending in New York.
Paula Woodman, the British Council's adviser for enterprise and society, says the council works in more than 100 countries and notes that several are studying impact investing in the UK, particularly countries in south-east Asia, she says.
It's no secret that Britain is increasingly seen as a world leader in social enterprise for a number of reasons, and the movement across the UK has lots of learning to share or sell.
Following a social investment mission to the White House last October, Social Enterprise's UK director of business and enterprise, Nick Temple, wrote in his blog
: "At Social Enterprise UK, the fact that there is huge international interest in the UK social enterprise movement is inescapable. This week alone has included our policy team meeting with Japanese academics, a request from eastern Europe to help develop a social enterprise programme, and three separate lines of enquiry from the Caribbean, the Antipodes and central Europe from the fledgling equivalents of Social Enterprise UK for support and advice."The UK is viewed as a leader in having developed an ecosystem (legal, financial, support etc) for social enterprise, and the rest of the world is keen to learn."
More and more businesses and organisations in the sector are offering their knowledge and business models overseas, sometimes bringing in several hundred pounds for a learning visit, for example.
There's Social Enterprise UK which has a strategic partnership with the British Council to spread knowledge from the UK social enterprise and social investment sector overseas. And, like other UK social enterprise bodies, it also regularly hosts social enterprise delegates from abroad.
As we enter a new year, social enterprise crowd-funding platform Buzzbank
is licensing its system to be used in South Africa by a project called ThundAFund. And, those behind the Social Enterprise Mark are speaking to countries overseas. In particular, the mark team is in talks with David Living at the Payroll Giving Foundation in New Zealand, who is interested in using the stamp in his country.Tommy Hutchinson, founder of i-genius
– a world-wide community of social entrepreneurs – runs social enterprise knowledge tours and also writes social enterprise university courses for countries overseas, with course content that looks at the UK, and sometimes brings foreign students to the UK to observe the sector.He believes Britain is of interest to the world because it has social enterprise in every sector, from technology to healthcare and recycling.
I-genius has members in more than 200 countries and Hutchinson often witnesses trends. "At the moment, we see a lot of interest from countries such as Turkey, Libya, Egypt, Serbia and Croatia, where there are really big pushes towards social change. They're particularly interested learning more about what role government can play in supporting social enterprise," he says.
Rizwan Tayabali, a social enterprise consultant, spent half his youth in India and the other half in the UK and now lives in Malaysia. For several years he's been travelling around South America, Asia and Africa giving pro-bono support to charities and social enterprises, and is writing a book on his experiences.
He agrees that the connections between British state and social enterprise, and the general connectedness of the sector are the envy of many countries.
"The real positives from the UK that other countries would perhaps like to emulate, are the state and systemic engagement with social enterprise, the infrastructure of the sector and the strong cultural value, encouragement, funding and kudos associated with socially meaningful endeavours you get in the UK. There's increasing cohesion between all the major sectors – social, commercial, financial and governmental in achieving change," says Tayabali.
While the UK is still very much exploring business model options for social enterprises, we do have a few to choose from, and other countries want to know about these. In particular the CIC model, says Jonathan Bland, founder of Social Businesses International (SBI), which works on knowledge sharing with a number of countries. France and Italy are particularly curious at the moment, he says.
Flaviano Zandonai, communications officer at the European research institute on co-operatives and social enterprise, based in Italy, has been working with SBI on exchanging ideas. In particular, he appreciates the light touch of the CIC regulator in the UK, he says. "The Italian law on social enterprise is too bureaucratic and without any promotion from the government."
Other areas of interest for Italy, he says, are impact investing, social bonds, the "ecosystem" of support and community assets.
Bland says the UK can also learn from other countries, and that SBI is interested in the consortia model for social business in Italy, for example.
However, one of the big areas where the UK can capitalise is with its specialist knowledge of social enterprises delivering public services. "The UK is ahead in a number of areas, including innovation in public service delivery models," says Bland. "Next October we'll be hosting a two day event in the UK focused specifically on sharing the secrets on social enterprise in public service delivery with the rest of Europe."
However, the UK doesn't necessarily have a perfect social enterprise sector which deserves fully emulating. Hutchinson, from i-genius comments: "Less good is the UK's ability to turn new ventures into sustainable businesses and one reason for this is that despite much talk, the finance institutions, including most of the social investors, are abysmal and have shown little interest in trying to really meet the needs of social entrepreneurs."
Tayabali also believes that Britain is obsessed with new ventures and with over-hyping itself. "I think the UK is tied into a culture where it's mostly only new and exciting social businesses that get the attention, as well as funding and social investment. Those who finance the sector seem to need to believe that what they're supporting is always going to be the next big thing and I think it makes UK social enterprises feel as though they have to constantly overplay what they're doing," he says.
"I find that every social enterprise in the UK talks about being transformational, but being transformational takes a lot more than selling a new gadget. You have to be at the heart of communities for a long, long time. I think more diligence and rigour is required to identify and focus support on enterprises that have true potential to create change."
*This content is brought to you by Guardian Professional. To join the social enterprise network, click here.* Reported by guardian.co.uk 1 day ago.