Last week, I blogged about a tweet from the Social Enterprise Mark which seemed to suggest that getting the accreditation is the only way to prove a social enterprise is genuine. Anne Mountjoy, who runs the Social Enterprise Mark Twitter account, responds in this exclusive guest post.
So, about the Social Enterprise Mark tweet that was
interpreted as alienating social entrepreneur,
that was not my intention. Let me explain…
I’m Anne Mountjoy and I work as Marketing and Comms Manager
for the Social Enterprise Mark. I’ve worked in the social enterprise sector
since 2004 and before that I worked for an environmental charity. I’ve also
been a director of a community recycling enterprise. I’m a member of
Co-operative SW and buy co-op products and services whenever possible. I’ve got many friends working in social
enterprise – having the Mark is not a consideration of that. I don’t
discriminate or exclude anyone.
I’m passionate about my job and I believe we are working to
make a positive difference to society. Everyone I work with feels this way.
The Mark Company is a social enterprise itself; working towards
achieving the Mark. Our social aim is to
increase recognition and the size of the sector. Profits are reinvested into
the business, to help us run more campaigns, like 50in250 (which has directly
positively impacted on the sales of social enterprises). We’re planning more campaigns to help social
enterprises become more widely understood, recognised and bought from.
I believe there’s a way where fair trade can be replicated
to help people choose to buy from social enterprises. So how are the mechanics
of such a device developed? The Mark worked with the sector to agree and
develop criteria that social enterprises could be benchmarked against. That’s
where the Mark came from and it is constantly in development. I understand that
not everyone will agree on the criteria, but the tide for social enterprise is
turning and we’re travelling in the right direction. Who knows how the sector
will evolve – and the Mark in response to it?
If people understand social enterprise because of the Mark,
that’s got to be a good thing. The Mark is not about excluding social
enterprises – the criteria are as inclusive as they can be when a benchmark is
set. And the Mark encourages new
entrants by accepting new starts. The
reason the Mark is important is because private business is starting to see
social enterprise as a business opportunity – I quoted A4E as the example in my
tweet. In addition, social enterprise as ‘bid candy’ is a relatively new but
becoming a common term. Personally, I think the private sector will always
exist – and it has a part to play, but social enterprises deserve to be
recognised for the extra they deliver.
I understand that there are many different ways social
entrepreneurs work – some in social enterprises and some not. We’re giving social
enterprises a tool to differentiate themselves from less scrupulous businesses
hijacking the social enterprise agenda. The more social enterprises stand
together – the bigger the impact will be. Let’s think positively about how much
the sector can gain by standing on the same side – even if we don’t all agree.
