As part of our first official discussion in the Social Entrepreneur committee, and one in fact that is often had in the wider community, we began a process of finding a way to put our finger on what is a social enterprise vs. what is an NGO.

Clearly, it was a conversation hat was not goign to be solved by the 8 of us, and clearly it is a question that will only be answered in time, however to help us develop some framework that would help to narrow the discussions we began with a few simple classifications.

1. Reason for being: Whether or not the prime motive for the organization is one of social mission, of profit motive, or somwhere inbetween

2. Financial Structure: Was the organization one that had (or would) develop a sustainable product of service based revenue stream, was its primary source of income event based (fundraisers, grants, etc), or had it developed a hyrbid model

Being perhaps the two that we could agree on, we decided to start there…. btu what do you think?  If you were going to try and develop a definition of what is a social enterprise vs. an NGO, what would you look at? 

What are the areas that make for a successful organization, and should the primary focus be one of legal structure a nd financial models, or more focused on programs and impact?

Let us know by leaving a comment