Established in 1998, Social Enterprise London (SEL) is the strategic agency for the development of

social enterprise A social enterprise is an organization that applies commercial strategies to maximize improvements in financial, social and environmental well-being. This may include maximizing social impact alongside profits for co-owners. Social enterprises ca ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. SEL works with individuals, enterprises, organisations, government and other statutory bodies to provide enterprising solutions to social and environmental challenges and to create new ways of doing business.

History

The first social enterprise agency in the UK, Social Enterprise London was established in 1998 after collaboration between co-operative businesses (

Poptel Poptel was initially an email and bulletin board service, and later a British internet and on-line services provider that was run by an employee cooperative (worker cooperative) from 1986 to 2002. In the 1980s Poptel offered on-line communicati ...

, Computercraft Ltd, Calverts Press, Artzone), a number of co-operative development agencies (CDAs), and infrastructure bodies supporting

co-operative A cooperative (also known as co-operative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically-control ...

enterprise development (Co-operative Training London,

Co-operative Party The Co-operative Party is a centre-left political party in the United Kingdom, supporting co-operative values and principles. Established in 1917, the Co-operative Party was founded by co-operative societies to campaign politically for the fair ...

, London ICOM, Co-operatives UK). SEL's first chief executive, Jonathan Bland, brought experience from

Valencia Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, Valencia and the Municipalities of Spain, third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is ...

where a business support infrastructure for co-operative enterprise was established using learning from the

Mondragón Mondragón ( eu, Arrasate or ''Mondragoe''), officially known as Arrasate/Mondragón, is a town and municipality in Gipuzkoa Province, Basque Country, Spain. Its population in 2015 was 21,933. Economic and historical significance The town is be ...

region of Spain. SEL did more than provide support to emerging businesses: it created a

community of interest A community of interest, or interest-based community, is a community of people who share a common interest or passion. These people exchange ideas and thoughts about the given passion, but may know (or care) little about each other outside this ar ...

by establishing an undergraduate degree in social enterprise and a Social Enterprise Journal. Allison Ogden-Newton, formerly CEO of Women's Education in Building (WEB), took over from Bland in 2004. In July 2012 SEL announced that it would be integrating its key activities with the national body,

Social Enterprise UK Social Enterprise UK (SEUK; previously The Social Enterprise Coalition) is a community interest company founded in April 2002 in the United Kingdom. It functions as the national membership and campaigning body for the social enterprise movement in ...

Mission

SEL states that its mission is to "support and promote the success of social enterprises, positioning London as the global leader of the social enterprise movement".

Board

SEL's board brings together some of the country's leading social entrepreneurs. The board includes (as co-chairs) Mark Sesnan, managing director of

Greenwich Leisure Limited Greenwich Leisure Ltd (GLL), operating under the brand "Better", is a non-profit charitable Social Enterprise organisation which runs over 250 sport and leisure facilities and libraries on behalf of local authorities in London and across the UK, ...

and

Sophi Tranchell Sophia, also spelled Sofia, is a feminine given name, from Greek Σοφία, '' Sophía'', "Wisdom". Other forms include Sophie, Sophy, and Sofie. The given name is first recorded in the beginning of the 4th century. It is a common female na ...

, former Chief Executive of

Divine Chocolate Divine Chocolate Limited is a British purveyor of Fairtrade chocolate. It was originally established in the UK in 1998 as a company limited by shares co-owned by the Kuapa Kokoo cocoa farmers' co-operative in Ghana, Twin Trading and The Body Sh ...

Activities

SEL is or has been the social enterprise strategic partner to organisations including the

London Development Agency The London Development Agency (LDA) was from July 2000 until 2012 the regional development agency for the London region in England. A functional body of the Greater London Authority, its purpose was to drive sustainable economic growth within ...

(LDA) and

London borough The London boroughs are the 32 local authority districts that together with the City of London make up the administrative area of Greater London; each is governed by a London borough council. The present London boroughs were all created at ...

councils. SEL operates as a social enterprise in its own right, running a wholly owned trading subsidiary that markets bespoke consultancy services, social enterprise training and publications. It delivers consultancy and business support across the world in countries including Vietnam, Korea and Croatia. SEL worked with the LDA to establish a postgraduate degree in social enterprise development and management at the

University of East London , mottoeng = Knowledge and the fulfilment of vows , established = 1898 – West Ham Technical Institute1952 – West Ham College of Technology1970 – North East London Polytechnic1989 – Polytechnic of East London ...

, led by Jon Griffith. (There was also an undergraduate degree, at the same University, led by Siobhan Riordan and Gladius Kulothungan). In 2004 SEL developed and launched the ''Social Enterprise Journal'', now managed by Liverpool John Moores University and published by

Emerald Group Publishing Emerald Publishing Limited is a scholarly publisher of academic journals and books in the fields of management, business, education, library studies, health care, and engineering. History Emerald was founded in the United Kingdom in 1967 as '' ...

. It also runs the London Social Enterprise Network, a network of over 2,400 social enterprises and social entrepreneurs based across the world. In October 2010 SEL developed and launched Transitions, a programme of training and consultancy designed to support public sector workers and public bodies keen to explore the potential of establishing 'spin out' social enterprises to deliver public services. The organisation directly brokered over 500 social enterprise jobs under the DWP's

Future Jobs Fund The 'Fund was a UK government initiative introduced in 2009 which aimed to help long term unemployed people back into employment. It was cut by the Coalition government, Prime Minister David Cameron claiming the scheme was "expensive, badly ta ...

References

{{Reflist, 30em Social entrepreneurship Non-profit organisations based in London