Google “social enterprise” and you’ll get 2.1 million citations. I kid you not.
So, if you want to be more selective, here’s a quick guide on what we’ve found to be the most useful online sources of practical information about how to succeed with social enterprise (SE). (Full disclosure: I’m affiliated with several that I’ve marked with *’s)
- Social Enterprise Alliance*. North American membership association offers many resources, some available to all, others members only. (Well worth $75, IMHO.)
- REDF. San Francisco based funder that’s probably started and supported more successful SE’s than anyone else. Web site chock full of practical advice.
- Community Wealth Ventures. Washington DC consulting firm founded by Bill Shore; resources include SE database, franchising report, L3C report, and more.
- npEnterprise Forum*. Free, global, 7000+ subscriber listserv focused exclusively on social enterprise. Post a question and you’ll likely get five answers in days.
- IdeaEncore. Many tools and techniques, some free, some for a small fee.
- Rolfe Larson Associates*. Denver consulting firm with a Free Resources section with practical work sheets and templates on starting an SE.
- Free Management Library*. Section on Social Enterprise and Business Planning packed with resources and links about the field. Weekly blogs also.
- Wikipedia. Nowadays every research project has to include Wikipedia, although in this case, it is a bit sparse on practicality.
- RootCause in Boston has an excellent free guide to SE business planning.
- Aperio in Toronto offers some good articles and case studies.
And if you want more, well, you can always go back to those 2.1 million Google citations…
Rolfe Larson provides consulting and training in areas such as strategic planning, market research, feasibility analysis, business planning, marketing and implementation strategies.