FAQs
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Social enterprise is a new concept, although much potential but hasn’t strongly developed yet in Vietnam. Therefore, the identification and support to social entrepreneurs in early stages is necessary and feasible to promote social entrepreneurship movement in Vietnam. In the Social Entrepreneurs Support Program implemented by CSIP and partners, we focus on supporting social entrepreneurs in two stages: - Start-up: SEs who are developing and/or piloting their innovative, break-through ideas/projects aim to establish social enterprises to address specific social and environmental problems.
- Take-off: SEs whose social enterprises have initially proved and are seeking to consolidate or expand their organization to intensify social and environmental impacts.
We hope to attract social entrepreneurs in the mature phase of development, so they can share knowledge and experiences with younger SE’s. As well as opportunities to cooperation, seek additional investments, or possible replication of their models at a higher level. |
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A social entrepreneur (SE) is a person who uses their entrepreneurial qualities and skills to organize and manage an enterprise or organization to address a specific social or environmental problem. Unlike business entrepreneurs, who measure their success by returns and profits, social entrepreneurs measure their success by the social changes they make possible.
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Like business entrepreneurs who set up businesses to produce products or services for profits, SEs also set up and run social organizations or ventures to implement their ideas, which produce products or services to address social or environmental problems. |
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Some of them are. However, just working in the field of charity or social development doesn’t automatically make someone an SE. Like in business, not all business people are entrepreneurs. This, however, does not mean they are less important than or make a smaller contribution than that of social entrepreneurs. There are some indicators to distinguish a Social Entrepreneur from a charitable or social activist, they are listed as followed: - Innovation: SEs are usually those who bring new products, services, or approaches to address the root causes of a specific social or environmental problem rather than those who merely deliver services that are already developed to a certain community.
- Results: SEs are usually never content with their initial small-scale models but are those who would insist to go to “the end of the road” to develop their model and serve the larger market.
- Direct action: SEs are directly involved in solving a social problem. They rarely get cold feet, daring and open to taking risks to achieve their goals.
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We believe that investing in SEs with innovative ideas and abilities. Will eventually bring benefit to the society as a whole. Such investment is necessary for the following reasons:
- Investing in building the leaders (those who lead and run organizations) will result in better strategic planning and greater long-term benefits as opposed to just investing in specific activities.
- Vietnam is faced with various social and environmental challenges. We need SEs, who invent and implement innovative, effective, and quickly-adaptive solutions to these constantly changing challenges.
- So far, Vietnamese SE’s haven’t been duly recognized as SE’s by society. CSIP’s investment and honoring of SE’s, will help to raise awareness and recognition from the community and therefore allow social entrepreneurships to flourish in Vietnam.
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