In case you missed it, the Social Enterprise World Forum is coming to Christchurch.  This will put some focus on social enterprises.

So what is one?  

 Well, according to a bit of a guru in this space, MJ Kaplan (and who I looked for guidance when developing up a Social Enterprise fund), it’s three things according to an article in Flint and Steel 2014:

• Intent.  Social enterprises exist to address social and/ or environmental problems
  
• Business Models. These ventures employ business models, skills and tools to develop products and services that are traded in the market place
  
• Profits. Ownership is structured to assure that profits are reinvested to advance the core social / environmental mission and grow the enterprise sustainably.
  

Now, I have been thinking about this stuff for a couple of years now, but was still somewhat dumbstruck a few months ago when, while making a serious amount of scones I realised that indeed, I was the Chair of a $30k per annum social enterprise. I was trying to convince someone to take over my role (mission accomplished) and as part of selling the role I realised that our school PTA actually ticks all the boxes here. 

• Intent.  We exist to form a village to help raise our kids, and to provide extra cash on top of government funds.
  
• Business Models.  We implement business models by marketing and merchandising uniforms, supplying school lunches, and entertainment opportunities for the school community.
  
• Profits.  All our profits go back to the school to provide items not provided by existing government funding.
  

Wow.  So suddenly I was not just a bored housewife: rather I am part of a growing and rather fab social movement. 

There are a whole bunch of organisations which, on the face of it, tick those boxes but may not self identify as social enterprises.

• Early child education centres exist to ensure that every pre-schooler has a good start in life and earn funding from trading (government contracts and parental fees).
  
• Many sports clubs actually make more money from trading over the bar than they do from subs.I guess that the intent is to form communities.
  
• Churches can trade eternal salvation for a tithe, with the intent of community building and charitable purpose of religion.Others, such as the Seventh Day Adventists have a specific trading arm through Sanitarium, drive profits through a rather large $200m business.
  
• Private schools trade education for parental fees, with the charitable purpose of education and I guess, community building.
  
• Maori charities drive profits back into their beneficiaries.Ngai Tahu is of course the stand out here.
  
• Private Hospitals, such as St Georges, run as incorporated societies, and drive income via trading, government contracts.St George’s objectives (from their website) state: To apply any profits accruing from the activities or work of the Society to the furtherance of its charitable objectives, especially the altruistic nursing of the sick or for such other purposes which accord with its charitable objectives
  
• Gaming trusts.Tricky this one.I postulated that perhaps gaming trusts could be considered as social enterprises, since around 40% of their income (after payouts, before costs) goes to Not for Profit.Whether the social cost is worth the economic benefit is a discussion for another day.
  

We are going to see a lot this week about the new and emerging social enterprises.  And yes, we are seeing more here particularly around “for purpose” businesses as people re-evaluate business orthodoxy around trickle down.  However, in the hype let’s remember that it’s not new.  Kilmarnock, which you will hear a lot about at the conference, is 60 years old. 

I also think that more effort needs to go into measuring the impact of the various organisations.  Many social enterprises have quite a bit of hype, but often propose some sorts of simplistic solutions to complicated social issues.  And perhaps that’s a gap that could do with some support: working with those enterprises and independent researchers to ensure that strong auditable metrics are a key part of the social enterprise proposition – making sure they hype and the good that we think we are doing matches the reality of the issues that are being solved.

We don’t have to be one of the cool kids to be a participant at the Social Enterprise table.  I guess it’s incumbent on all of us, both those in the tent and those who don’t know where the camp ground is, to include, and not go down the usual track of putting language and process around some concepts that in actual fact are fairly old.

Love to talk with you if you think this is at all interesting. Check out my website www.delfi.co.nz.

It’s that time of year, and my children are at a life stage where education options loom up.  I was chatting with a fellow parent on the sideline of some sports event recently, and he made me think a bit with his statement about private schools: “Well, they really are businesses”. 

But actually, they are charities.  This made me wonder what actual charitable purposes they purport to fulfil.

The Charities Act is based on legal precedents with an Act passed in England in 1601.  At that time of course, Queen Elizabeth 1 was on the throne.  My knowledge of that era is coloured by Phillipa Gregory, but it strikes me that culturally, we have changed our belief sets quite a bit – I’m not sure Catholics are quite the worry they once were, most the witches were dealt with at the time, and rich white men no longer are in charge of everything (well…).  However, the current Charities Act 2005 is heavily based on case law dating from 1601.  The 2005 Act stated that “charitable purpose” must fall under one or more categories.

• The relief of poverty.
• The advancement of education.
• The advancement of religion.
• Other purposes beneficial to the community.
  

Now, many of these provisions, under a modern first world country, are probably a bit redundant.  Education is widely provided by the government, as is poverty relief, health services.  We can argue over the execution, but no one is suggesting we remove any of the above from state mandate.  Religion?  Well, the growing group of New Zealander’s stating no religion is growing.  In the 2013 census, almost 42% of us said we had no religion, up from 34.9% in 2006. 

This then got me thinking what it did mean to be a New Zealander: what are our core values.   I think it’s about equity, respect and creativity.  My forebears came to this country to start a new life without the shackles of European social structures.  Respect comes to respect of our planet and of each other.  New Zealand has a narrative around number 8 wire which I think is pretty cool.  We will all have a different take on this of course, but would be interesting for us as New Zealanders to have a yarn about this.

If you follow the news you will have seen that the Charities Registration Board has upheld an earlier decision to remove Family First from the Charities register as they felt it did not have charitable purpose. They considered that “Family First has a purpose to promote its own particular views about marriage and the traditional family that cannot be determined to be for the public benefit in a way previously accepted as charitable.”

Now, the Board made the initial decision to remove the above organisation from the register in 2013.  It was challenged, but the decision upheld 2017.  There will be numerous lawyers over this, and at least one economist report.  How much to deregister this one organisation?  I would hate to think. 

You may also remember the kerfuffle almost a year ago when over 100,000 New Zealanders called for a deregistration of Destiny Church.  This was not backed by Charity Services as there seemed “insufficient evidence” to warrant an investigation.  The charitable purpose of this organisation, from the Charities Office website, is religion.  Which is entirely valid, so yes, like it or not, under our current rules it’s a charity.

Religion is an interesting charitable purpose.  The NZ Herald has done an interesting piece of analysis which shows where atheists live… and it’s all in those wealthier suburbs.  So is there a link between poverty and religion?  Does religion (through tithing) actually drive poverty?  This Samoan chap certainly thinks so.  I can’t find much in the way of academic studies on this sadly.

If we look at private schools, their charitable purpose is education.  Which is all well and good, and entirely consistent with legal purpose.  But unlike 400 years ago, in New Zealand we have universal education for all children.  In 2017 does education need to be a charitable purpose?  Further, one of the elements of Charitable purpose is around public benefit.  The benefit must be for the public, or a sufficient section of the public.  And halfway down the page it states “unjustifiable fees that exclude many people would not be acceptable”.  Hmmm.

If we use my Kiwi values as a surrogate for charitable purpose, for the sake of argument, then how many registered charities fit where New Zealand is as a nation? And if we use 400 year old legislation to define what is important to a modern first world economy today, how can we make sure we get the best possible charities sector and services sector which meets the needs of our increasingly diverse communities? 

Love to talk with you if you think this is at all interesting. Check out my website www.delfi.co.nz.