[AlexMuir]

I run a company that collects and delivers used furniture for charities in the UK (https://boxmove.com)

It’s a social enterprise in the sense that we save charities a fortune on the way they currently operate, and we employ our staff on better salaries than they receive working in-house. The flip side is we expect a decent day’s work from our teams. We are profitable, sustainable and no reliant on grants, funding, or anything else. That’s good for everybody.

Those that join us from charities typically did 6-8 jobs a day. Our teams average 20. There is so much bullshit and incompetence in the charity sector that I would love to call out, but sadly that would damage our business. It is a frustrating sector to operate in - not least because we compete against ‘serial social entrepreneurs’ who receive a grant, take a nice salary for two years nibbling away at our client base, then shut down and move onto the next self-enriching project.

Not really sure why I answered this question but there you go!

[Dumblydorr]

Can you explain how charities could be more efficient? Curious to hear more on that subject

[peridotoak]

Thank you for the share, Alex! I found your frustration to be quite curious: why would calling out the bullshit and incompetence be damaging to your business?

I'd imagine that a huge part of your pitch is that you're MUCH more efficient and therefore you can save on costs if they outsource to your business.

[pbronez]

OP runs a for-profit company with Non-profit customers. If they share a lot of stories about how inefficient the non-profits are, that could hurt those non-profits financially or just emotionally. Either of these would disincline the non-profit from continuing to be a customer of OP’s moving company.

Everyone loves accountability until it’s applied to them!

[kirillzubovsky]

If it makes you feel any better, from what I heard from a knowledgeable source, this is worse in medical field. A lot of people have gotten really good at milking Gates Foundation and alike for grants worth tens of millions. They do the song and dance to pretend that research is being done, and results are just around the corner; ten years later they rinse and repeat.

Perhaps the best you can do is to be one of the good ones, and put making a difference over making a load of cash.

[raybb]

I'm a little late to the party but this is really great.

I've been working on building out a list of resources for people interested in social enterprises (https://github.com/RayBB/awesome-social-enterprise)

Do you have any recommendations for resources that helped you get started or inspired you to start a social enterprise?

Also, do you mind if I add your social enterprise to my list of social enterprises?

Thanks!

peridotoak my shameless self plug for my repo above may be of interest to you!