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CAPACITY BUILDING SEMINARBuilding enabling ecosystems for social enterprises
Brussels, 17th-18th February 2016
How do visibility and recognition tools facilitate the access of social enterprise to finance and
access to markets?Rocío Nogales
EMES Managing DirectorGECES member (rapporteur of WG 2 ”Visibility of social enterprises")
1. The crucial relevance of visibility
The EC considers it one of the three pillars of the SBI together with finance and legal frameworks.
Source: EC (2015) A map of social enterprises and their eco-systems in Europe.
2. What do we mean by visibility?
It means different things to different stakeholders (social entrepreneurs, supporters, customers, public authorities, traditional private sector).
It varies according to the scale (local, national, European, global).
Three key interlinked concepts: • Visibility• Identity • Recognition
“Capable of being seen” in physical and metaphorical terms.
VISIBILITYSharper pictures & stronger messages
IDENTITYA more assertive SE community
Representation ("voice(s)“) and cooperation Scaling-up and adaptation
Common values (principles, aims, interests, features, ways of working).
Political agenda
Networks and clusters
Known and trusted by key organisations,the general public, public authorities.
Social entrepreneurship: attitudes, skills, activities
Social enterprise: A variety of legal forms, business models and activities
Communication (on activities and impact)
Organizational communication (incl. media relations)
Research and evidence base (incl. statistics)
Transparency and accountability increase credibility. Reporting on impact and social added value.
RECOGNITIONA stronger place
in society
3. Added value of visibility
To access finance Social enterprise side: Capacity
building, lack of skills, mindset and processes. Funding community side: Lack of awareness,
knowledge, trust, experience and procedures, etc. Eco-system side: Policy alignment, stock-taking,
duplication minimization, etc.
It directly addresses some of the barriers….
To access markets Public sector: design adequate public procurement
processes. Private and corporate consumers/clients: know about
offer, values and impact; become “ambassadors”. Social enterprise community
level: engage in co-producing policies and measures.
Social enterprises: strengthen capacity to expand activity-, target-, or geographic-wise.
4. Some illustrationsLabels and certification: Promising but need researching, testing and bottom up input.
Mapping studies: require updates and improvements and local stakeholder input.
EU-wide and other level fora turning into concrete results once agenda co-construction and articulation takes place.
Challenges for visibility: Barriers of a pragmatic, cultural, nature-specific, strategic, and political nature.
Broader and more pluralistic notions of “finance” and “markets” are needed:· SE require hybrid finance.· Large variance (country and legal form).· Markets are not limited to “trading”.
5. Issues to consider
