Skip to Main Content

Social Enterprise

This guide will help you locate information on a variety of social enterprise resources.

Additional Nonprofit Guides

Social Enterprise Resources

National Institute for Social Impact:  https://ni4si.org/.  National Institute for Social Impact is a local organization based in Colorado Springs.  They define a Social Impact business as any organization that prioritizes doing work that consciously, systemically and sustainably serves to solve a local or global community need using entrepreneurship and a strong business model to fund their efforts.  Learn more about social impact through their classes and events.

Conscious Capital:  https://www.consciouscapitalism.org/. Capitalism is a fundamentally human endeavor. Conscious Capitalism is the integration of beliefs in pro-capitalism & systems improvement, personal & business advancement, and social & environmental impact.  A downloadable overview of the essentials of conscious capitalism or the four tenets of conscious capitalism can be found here.

Public Benefit Corporation:  https://benefitcorp.net/. A benefit corporation is a legal tool to create a solid foundation for long-term mission alignment and value creation. It protects company missions through capital raises and leadership changes, creates more flexibility when evaluating potential sale and liquidity options, and prepares businesses to lead a mission-driven life post-IPO.

Social Enterprise:  https://socialenterprise.us/about/social-enterprise/.  Organizations that address a basic unmet need or solve a social or environmental problem through a market-driven approach.  Information on how a business can earn a social enterprise certification can be found here.

Social Business: Fact sheet. Broadly speaking, “social business” is a form of business striking a balance between social objectives and financial goals, situated somewhere between profit-maximizing business and the nonprofit sector.

The Fourth Sector:  https://www.fourthsector.org/what-is-the-fourth-sector. This rapidly growing fourth sector combines the institutional logics of the traditional three sectors and consists of “for-benefit” enterprises that use market-based approaches and private capital to solve the world’s most urgent social and environmental problems – leveraging profit in pursuit of purpose.

Looking for social enterprise companies? A searchable database can be found on Good Market. Good Market is a curated community of social enterprises, cooperatives, responsible businesses, civic organizations, networks, and changemakers. Are you a social enterprise business? It’s free to be Good Market approved and have a public profile on the community platform.