Aspiring Social Enterprise Mark - Social Enterprise Mark

ASPIRING

SOCIAL ENTERPRISE ACCREDITATION

Get started on the pathway to social enterprise good practice and excellence.

What are the benefits?

Prove your commitment to social enterprise principles

By displaying the Aspiring Social Enterprise accreditation, you can engage with stakeholders and demonstrate how you are standing up to the scrutiny of external assessment to work towards recognised standards of good practice.

We will support you to get started on the pathway to achieving social enterprise good practice and excellence.

Receive tailored support

Benefit from a tailored service to support your journey to becoming an accredited social enterprise, including:

Refining your governance documents
General advice on legal structures
How to qualify different sources of income
General advice on how you can report on impact created for social beneficiaries

Gain useful feedback

We will conduct an annual review of your progress towards achieving the Social Enterprise Mark and provide support and advice on meeting this recognised standard of good practice. This will hopefully provide useful considerations for future development.

This helps to improve your organisation’s efficiency and effectiveness as a developing social enterprise.

Support to measure and articulate your social impact

In supporting you to work towards achieving the Social Enterprise Mark, we offer guidance to enable you to get started on measuring and articulating your social impact.

Our social impact questions are designed to help you think about the social impact you create, and to communicate this clearly and succinctly.

Access our unique international network of accredited social enterprises

Share your news with our extensive international audience – we publish a weekly news bulletin featuring updates from our international network of accredited social enterprises. We can also share your news on our website and via our social media channels.

You can also benefit from discounted rates for our conference, which provides valuable networking opportunities.

Do I Qualify?

This accreditation is aimed at businesses who may have only recently become incorporated, that have not necessarily started trading (or have just begun to), and those that may have been running for some time but have been grant dependent, reliant on loans or investment income.

To qualify for the Aspiring Social Enterprise accreditation, you should meet the following criteria:

Be primarily dedicated to social objectives

Applicants must have clearly defined social/environmental objectives, which should be articulated within the legal objects of the organisation, e.g. Articles of Association.

Be an independent business

The business must be independently registered, with no public or government agency or body, or other private, corporate bodies, holding decision making control of the organisation.

Be planning to become sustainable through trading income

Applicants must be aiming to earn 50% or more of their income from trading within 3 years, and be able to demonstrate how they plan to achieve this.

As a minimum, an organisation must answer a few short questions describing their business plans and broadly confirm their expected sources of income and expenditure for the forthcoming year. If one is available, a copy of a business plan that includes a financial forecast of trading activities can also be submitted.

Commit to dedicating a majority of any annual profits to social purposes

There should be relevant clauses in governing documents, which confirm that the business is trading in support of a clear social/environmental purpose and that a principle proportion (51% or more) of any profit is dedicated to such purposes.

Have an asset lock clause or similar

Applicants should have relevant clauses in governing documents, which confirm a commitment that, in the event of dissolution, any residual assets will be distributed towards achieving social objectives.

Have a vision of how social objectives will be achieved

Applicants should be able to describe how they plan to achieve their social objectives. As a minimum they must answer a few short questions describing their business plans, the social beneficiaries and nature of the social outcomes being targeted.

Organisations will eventually be required to answer a set of questions designed to explore their social impact, as part of the transition from being an Aspiring Social Enterprise to achieving full Social Enterprise Mark Holder status.

Full qualification criteria

How much does it cost?

There is an annual licence fee of €200.

The annual fee entitles you to:

tailored feedback to provide benchmarks for future development
support in working towards recognised standards of good practice
share your news with our extensive online audience
discounted rates for our annual conference

All fees shown exclude additional taxes e.g. VAT which will be charged at the applicable rate

Rates correct as at 1 st November 2022 Valid for 6 months – subject to review

Please note that the continuation of the licence and agreement is subject to an automatic annual renewal process and fee, through which you must confirm your continuing eligibility with the qualifying criteria, and a three yearly full review.

SEM CIC Terms and Conditions Sept 22 apply

Complete this short form to register your interest in applying for accreditation. We will then be in touch within 2 working days to provide more information and answer any questions you may have.