Frequently Asked Questions
Looking for our Glossary? please click here.
What is the difference between a charity and a social enterprise?
What are social aims?
What about funding for these activities?
What about the costs of setting up and running a social enterprise?
How should we ensure continuation?
Hints from previous social enterprise teachers and students.
Who has responsibility?
Do I have to go through all the stages of the Journey?
Q What is the difference between a charity and a social enterprise?
A The main difference is the legal incorporation, a charity is accountable to the Charity Commission, where as a social enterprise will send its annual returns to either Companies House if they are registered as a Company Limited by Guarantee or to the CIC Regulator if they are registered as a Community Interest Company. A charity will depend on grants and donations whereas a social enterprise will raise money through trading activity such as selling goods or services. First and foremost a social enterprise is a business.
Q What are social aims?
A Social aims are one of the key differences between a social enterprise and a mainstream business. Where as most businesses will trade in order to make a profit for the owner or shareholders a social enterprise will use any profits made to fund their social aims. Many schools use their trading activity and subsequent profits to fund a charity, or a community project. One of the most popular social aims is linking with a school in a deprived country, there are projects running in schools across the region which are funding the building of classrooms, buying books and paying for water systems. Other social aims include enhancing environmental projects, supporting disabled and elderly people and activities aimed at regenerating the local community. It would not be expected that the profits went back into the school funds to pay for teaching or equipment costs but could be used to pay for specialist school projects like a trip or other enterprise activities. Social aims may be linked to the trading activity such as recycling or carrying out odd jobs for elderly local residents or can be separate with the profits just being reinvested in different projects.
Q What about funding for these activities?
A It mainly depends on what type of business you are planning as to where you can get funding. For the larger projects which involve buildings there are numerous options contact rachel.oddie@sesc.info to find out more about the support available for your development plans. For student led activities there are a number of grants available for young people such as with The Big Lottery, contact your local education business partnership who will have information of local funding and specialist grants for young people. One of the benefits of becoming an incorporated social enterprise or charity is that you can apply to additional funding organisations which your school or college would not normally be eligible for.
Q What about the costs of setting up and running a social enterprise?
A Absolutely, your social enterprise is first and foremost a business, during your planning you should include any costs of staffing and resources and these costs incorporated into your pricing structure. You may still want to use volunteers but it is worth considering if your need to recruit staff. This is a major consideration for your school but feedback from previously run school social enterprises highlights the issue of teachers finding the time required to start and run a business when they are on timetable.
Q How should we ensure continuation?
A During the planning of your business your priority should be to develop the business to be sustainable and also then look at how to ensure the long term continuation of that business or project. If time is an issue it may be better to do a one off or short term project. So often fantastic activities fall by the wayside as an inspirational teacher is either redeployed or leaves the school or students from the management team drop off or finish their studies and the project fails to continue.
Q Below are some hints from previous social enterprise teachers and students.
A
- 1.) Have a paid member of staff that focus’ solely on the business
- 2.) Ensure the social enterprise activity is developed with a whole school approach rather than being isolated to just the work of a particular member of staff or group of students. There should be internal marketing plans as part of the usual marketing and sales strategies.
- 3.) Have a plan to roll over student involvement, this may be a comprehensive hand over between leaving and younger students or it may involve having mixed year groups.
Q Who has responsibility?
A Again this depends on the type of business incorporation. An incorporated social enterprise needs to have a board of directors; this can be made up of some staff, governors, parents, community members, and business people. It is advisable to set up either as limited by guarantee or as a Community Interest Company as this gives protection regarding the liability directors have. If you want to start as a charity, responsibility will be with the charity trustees. Students under the age of 18 cannot be directors but can still be involved in the management by setting up a management board who act as a steering group. If students are involved in the Young Enterprise short term project they can be directors if they work within the constraints of the company programme. Internal trading and unincorporated external trading will be the responsibility of the school or college.
Q Do I have to go through all the stages of the Journey?
A No, the journey is merely a guide to show you the scope of social enterprise activity. Every school and college is different and it is up to you to decide what resources you have available and which activity would be best for your school. You may only have time to run a one off project, that’s fine. You may try a one off project as a taster for a longer term business enterprise. Each stage of the journey is outlined on this website and will give you ideas of how you can progress you business idea if you want to. There are also contacts and web links on this website and links to business support organisations.
