Will today’s NGOs become tomorrow’s social enterprises?

9 August 2018

‘Social enterprise’ is the buzz word right now, and new ones are popping up everywhere.

Some are getting amazing results, from Eat My Lunch delivering lunches to kids in schools, to Indigo & Iris working with Fred Hollows, Trade Aid finding markets for producers in developing countries, and Good Travel (making tourism a force for good).

Not-for-Profits (NGOs) may look on in envy at many of these self-sustaining organisations who avoid the fundraising events, the complicated government grant processes, the charity shops and the expensive public fundraising campaigns.

But how transparent are social enterprises about their development outcomes? Should they be required, like NGOs to prove they make a difference?

NGOs may become more like social enterprises in the future, as public donations and government funding declines, and there is more competition from ‘for-profit’ organisations to ‘do’ development.
But social enterprises aren’t necessarily a silver bullet for NGOs looking to increase revenue or development impact. It takes a lot of energy to make a social enterprise work commercially, and given NGOs are often stretched, taking on a social enterprise to raise revenue could mean they have to cut back on their ‘real’ work.

How can NGOs and social enterprises work together to help people, and what are the ‘hybrid’ models emerging? What can they learn from each other?

CID Talk (co-hosted with the ?kina Foundation):

What: What can social enterprises learn from each other and what’s the difference?
Where: Sustainability Trust, 2 Forresters Lane, Te Aro, Wellington
When: Friday August 10. Midday-2pm
Who: Facilitated by Guy Redding, ?kina’s Director of International Development.

Panellists: Jackie Edmond, Family Planning NZ; Louise Aitken, ?kina Foundation; Denise Arnold, Cambodia Charitable Trust; Bonnie Howland, Indigo&Iris; Eliza Raymond, GOOD Travel; Michelia Miles, Trade Aid; Philip Squire, Sustainability Trust.

ends

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