Defining social enterprises

2. Defining social enterprises • Simply, social enterprises are companies whose profits gained are contributed to the society instead of using the profits for internal enterprise services. • Social enterprises play an essential role in the improvement of society.

3. Social entrepreneurs • A social entrepreneur is a person who does not mind losing money in order for society to improve and advance. • Social entrepreneurs are typically motivated by the ambition to strive for a better society.

4. Social enterprises guiding philosophy(self-initiated rules) • Social enterprises have a few guiding philosophies that they run by: • Engaging in ethical review of the goods and services it produces, and its production processes. • Defining its social purposes and produces evidence of its social impact. • Democratizes ownership, management and governance by passing control of its human, social and financial capital to its primary stakeholders. • In aspects, a social enterprise carries out guiding philosophy much like any other common business.

5. How do social enterprises work? • There are four main types of social enterprises and each function uniquely. • For example, a work integrated social enterprise train the disabled and society’s outcast (such as ex-criminal) to be ready to tackle different tasks. This gives them a chance to find a job. • Other enterprises such as the plough-back-profit enterprise ultimate objective are to gain enough profit for their affiliated business to be able to support itself. • A subsidized service social enterprise does what its name suggests. Basically this type of social enterprise eliminated costs of services which the needy or disabled cannot afford to have. • Lastly, the social needs social enterprise funds the general part of the society. The money is used to solve social problems or defects.

6. Example 1:Minds Background info: MINDS Social Enterprise began in 2000 to create employment opportunities for intellectually disabled people as an additional avenue to secure employment for their clients. It has proven to be a viable alternative of creating employment for our clients, resulting in the formalising of some in-house industries and transforming them into platforms of sustainable employment for many people with intellectual disability.

7. Example 2:Cha Cha Cottage Cha Cha Cottage kick-start to provide unskilled single mothers (divorcees, widows & unwed moms) and women in financial need (many are holding multiple jobs to make ends meet), with home-based work of making candles and soaps. These not only help sustain them financially and also create quality time for them to spend with their children.

8. Example 3:World Toilet College Background info: World Toilet College (WTC) has been conducting training courses since 2005. WTC saw the need to establish an independent world body which ensured that best practices and standards in toilet design, cleanliness and sanitation technologies were adopted through training and education. WTC is the first and only training college of its kind that focuses on the needs of rural and urban sanitation. The WTC is also the main sponsor for world toilet day (WTD). Basically, the WTD is an event that tells us how important the loo is.

9. Toilet Day Song Instead of letting you guys watch a video on a guy talking about toilets, we got a song about toilets.

10. How are social enterprises appreciated? • Recently, a presidential social entrepreneurship award has been kick-start to recognise the contributions made to the society by the social entrepreneurs. This award also relieves his/her social enterprise of their financial problems. • The community also show their appreciation towards the social enterprises by joining an event organized by NTUC called “Social Enterprises Day 2012”. The event aimed to re-affirm their commitment to care for their customers, their colleagues and the working families in Singapore.