We recognize the diverse perspectives around social entrepreneurship and the various expressions of social entrepreneurship (social enterprise being just one of them) that exist globally. As such, we recognize the need to have a guiding definition for social entrepreneurship:

Social Entrepreneurship is an approach, to serve social cause(s) through social/business innovation. The innovation should adopt a model that is both sustainable and can achieve scalable impact, while actively measure and quantify the social impact in order to grow and evolve in the changing social and business landscape.

Social enterprises are organizations set up to fulfil social purposes. It includes any non-profit, for-profit or hybrid corporation that utilizes market-based strategies and/or social innovations to advance a target social cause, in a sustainable and scalable way.

Typically, social enterprises

• Employ creative and implementable approaches
• Use leveraged processes to maximize results and minimize resources
• Has a business/social innovation model that is scalable

As a team, we’ve met with social entepreneurs and visited the businesses or movements they’ve set-up.  In doing so, we’ve developed the SEforum Framework in thinking about social enterpreneurship.