British Council promotes social entrepreneurship

CEBU, Philippines – The British Council is strongly pushing for "Social Entrepreneurship" in the Philippines by holding workshops to encourage Filipinos to venture into social enterprise businesses.

Social Enterprises are social mission driven organizations which apply market-based strategies to achieve a social purpose. The movement includes both non-profits that use business models to pursue their mission and for-profits whose primary purposes are social. Their aim - to accomplish targets that are social and/or environmental as well as financial - is often referred to as the triple bottom line.

Many commercial businesses would consider themselves as having social objectives, but social enterprises are distinctive because their social or environmental purpose re-mains central to their operation.

The British Council-Philippines has invited Tommy Hutchinson, founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of I-Genius to conduct a two-day workshop on starting a social enterprise. Although, the workshop will be held in Metro Manila, British Council is inviting Cebuano entrepreneurs to take advantage of this opportunity.

British Council, the U.K.'s international organization for educational opportunities and cultural relations, announced that the first batch of the workshop will start on Septem-ber 28 and 29 (2010),       and the second batch will start immediately on the 30th of September to October 1. The venue of both workshops will be at the Discovery Suites in Or-tigas Center in Manila.

The workshop aims to equip budding entrepreneurs in the Philippines with information on getting started on their social enterprise venture by providing tips on business strategies and planning, marketing and communications including using new media in establishing networks plus raising finance.

The resource speaker Hutchinson established I-Genius, a world community of social entrepreneurs with members in over 90 countries. Its aim is to provide support to social entrepreneurs, encourage them to connect with one another and inspire more people to become social innovators.

Hutchinson has been instrumental in creating partnerships for social entrepreneurs with established organizations like corporations, media and government. He is also the brains behind the I-Genius Academy which provides business training courses for entrepreneurs and social entrepreneurs.

Social enterprise gurus Vincent Rapisura and Edwin Salonga from the Social Enterprise Development Partnerships Inc. (SEPDI) will also co-facilitate the workshop.

SEPDI provides innovative and excellence-driven capacity building services to micro-finance and micro-enterprise stakeholders in the Philippines and around the world.

Rather than maximizing shareholder value, the main aim of social enterprises is to generate profit to further their social and or environmental goals. This can be accomplished through a variety of ways and depends on the structure of the social enterprise.

The profit from a business could be used to support a social aim, such as funding the programming of a non-profit organization.

Moreover, a business could accomplish its social aim through its operation by employing individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds or lending to micro-businesses that have difficulty in securing investment from mainstream lenders. (FREEMAN)