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Sales and Social Enterprise Aren’t Mutually Exclusive

Stanford Social Innovation Review Sep 10, 2019
This article is deemed a must-read by one or more of our expert collaborators.
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Sales and Social Enterprise Aren’t Mutually Exclusive
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Giving Compass’ Take:

• The authors aim to debunk the myths about selling goods and services to demonstrate that selling socially-oriented products can be done from a morally, ethical place. 

• When selling social enterprise products, it requires more patience because sellers are operating in a people-focused system.  How can donors support sales functions for a mission-driven business?

• Here are six lessons in building a social enterprise. 


More and more purpose-driven social enterprises are trying their hand at distributing life-changing products by having the poor pay for them. To attract customers, they usually start with mild marketing campaigns such as promotional events and passive distribution.

When these attempts fail to get the job done—as they often do—they revert to active selling. Many do so with great reluctance and disdain.

Why? We think it’s largely because of selling’s “dark” reputation. Many people see selling as a dark art that requires false promises, arm-twisting, and aggressive tactics. Therefore, to succeed at selling, one must be slick, insincere, and manipulative—characteristics completely misaligned with mission-driven work.

But selling per se isn’t the culprit here. It’s what happens when people believe that selling is a disreputable practice that must be tolerated only as a last resort. If you believe selling is a dark art, full of shady practices, then that’s what you will create. If you think it’s about convincing people to buy stuff against their will, then that’s what you’ll build.

As sales consultants helping social enterprises in the developing world, we think differently. We think selling can be done with ethical pride and high morals. But we often find that our work must begin by turning what people believe about selling on its head.

Read the full article about social enterprises by Scott Roy & Roy Whitten at Stanford Social Innovation Review.

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Since you are interested in Social Enterprise, have you read these selections from Giving Compass related to impact giving and Social Enterprise?

  • This article is deemed a must-read by one or more of our expert collaborators.
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    Risk-Taking and Creating Lasting Social Impact [Video]

    Giving Compass' Take: • This Michael & Susan Dell Foundation highlights the work of iMerit, a company that looks to empower underprivileged communities by training them for jobs in the digital economy. • What can other organization's learn from iMerit's model? How can we encourage more risk-taking in philanthropy to reach our most lofty goals? • Here's more about how we can think about risk at nonprofit boards. One of our guiding principles here at the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, “Take the Risks Your Challenge Deserves,” comes from an understanding that the greatest challenges require us to do things differently, to push the boundaries and be willing to take risks in order to realize the greater impact. In this podcast episode [and video], you’ll hear about the work of our partners at iMerit. Founder and CEO Radha Basu is someone who has consistently and persistently pushed the boundaries of traditional risk to realize her vision of empowering young marginalized Indians to work in digital jobs. We sat down with Radha and Zarin Fatma, a senior technical associate at iMerit, and spoke about the incredible impact iMerit has had on their lives and communities. Watch the video about iMerit's work for social impact at the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation.


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Social Enterprise is an important topic. Other members found these Giving Funds, Charitable Organizations and Projects aggregated by Giving Compass to be relevant to individuals with a passion for Social Enterprise.

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