Social Enterprise

Social Enterprise Movement

NESsT is a part of a growing, global social enterprise movement. More and more entrepreneurs and investors are realizing that social and financial returns are not mutually exclusive.

Social enterprises apply business principles and practices to achieve social good. They reinvest their financial returns into the community to further their social purpose, to create employment and/or other economic and social benefits for marginalized communities.

Social Enterprise Terminology

Social enterprises are known by many names: “social businesses,” “social-purpose businesses,” “mission-driven businesses,” “social ventures,” etc. Whatever the name, social enterprises operate with a “double bottom-line” of generating financial return while simultaneously advancing a social mission.

The term “social entrepreneur” is currently used to mean very different things. Some use the term social entrepreneur to refer to a “social innovator” (i.e., an individual that is addressing a critical social problem in a particularly effective or innovative way). NESsT uses the term social enterprise to refer to a business that is created to address or solve a critical social problem in a financially sustainable (and potentially profitable) way.

Non-Profit and For-Profit

Social enterprises can be both non-profit and for-profit in form. Some social enterprises are created, operated and/or owned by non-profit, charitable organizations as a means of generating income and/or to otherwise further their social mission. Other social enterprises are incorporated as a for-profit entity but the business strategy is designed to achieve a social objective.

NESsT is agnostic on the legal form of a social enterprise as long as its primary purpose is socially-driven.