What Is Social Enterprise?

What is social enterprise? Nowadays there are countless charities around the world. So what differs a straight donation from using social enterprise to empower impoverished or underprivileged groups to exit the poverty cycle themselves? Triple's J's Tom Tilley recently explored the issue, describing social enterprise as a kind of care meets capitalism whereby through buying goods you end up giving back. You'll see new types of retail where the beneficiaries are actively involved in improving their future and it also gives consumers much more choice in how they can get involved, rather than the traditional monthly direct debit. With social enterprise's grassroots appeal you see big organisations alongside micro-organisations, equally making great strides for various groups of people who might otherwise have been forgotten. By empowering people to start their own business or go to university, the kind of passiveness historically associated with the beneficiaries of charitable groups becomes an active, thriving and sustainable movement.

Skip to 7:49 mins to listen.