The growing number of social enterprises and impact startups in the USA

86% of millennials believe that business should serve society rather than focusing purely on profits. At the same time, 94% of millennials want to use their skills to contribute to causes they care about. Luckily for these millennials consumers are increasingly willing to pay extra to companies that commit to social and environmental action. This is where social entrepreneurship comes in, with its goal of harnessing business for positive change. Social innovation is often a key part of these enterprises, and they usually seek to address social or environmental issues in exciting new ways. 

The popularity of the term “social enterprise” has increased massively, however defining exactly what is, and what isn’t, a social enterprise is challenging. There is a huge variety in the types of organisations and companies that define themselves as social enterprises. A social enterprise may be a non-profit which utilises entrepreneurial ideas, or a big mainstream company that are socially and environmentally aware. These organisations and companies also make use of a large range of approaches for achieving change. There are companies which sell products aimed at addressing a specific problem, or they have a buy-one-donate-one model, or those that develop tech solutions to challenging issues. Looking at social enterprises as a whole the possibilities for these types of companies seems endless. 

Meanwhile, a social impact start up is slightly easier to define. All social enterprises will have been a start up at some point. A start up, generally speaking, is a company recently founded by a small number of entrepreneurs seeking to bring a unique product or service to the market. So, by definition, a social impact start up is one which aims to address a specific social issue in some way.

The U.S. is a hot spot for social entrepreneurship. While there is no official register, there are likely tens of thousands of them. The most recent attempt at analysing the sector came from the Great Social Enterprise Census in 2013. The results were fascinating. Many of them only have a few employees and a revenue of less than $250,000. Some are registered as private companies, while others consider themselves non-profits. Interestingly, the majority (over 90%) focus on creating solutions at home rather than internationally. As would be expected, there is a huge array in the different focal areas of these enterprises. They range from carbon capture technology, to EdTech, to VR Tech used for social change.  The following list is just a snapshot of this massively diverse sector.