Social enterprise mark breaks out of south west

A community interest company (CIC) is being set up to help the social enterprise mark break out of the south west of England.

The as yet unnamed CIC, which should be up and running by the end of the year, will act as an umbrella organisation for all social enterprises with the mark, established by south west support organisation Rise in 2007 to help customers identify social and environmental businesses.

Rise hopes the mark, which has so far been awarded to 18 social enterprises, will be rolled out across England, Wales and Northern Ireland next year. Around 20 social enterprises are also in talks with Scottish support organisation Senscot about taking the mark into Scotland.

The first step of the roll-out is establishing ‘national champions' - social enterprises approached by Rise to spearhead the mark in each region and nation.

Months of campaigning by Sunlight Social Enterprises CEO Peter Holbrook to make the mark UK-wide paid off last week as his community interest company, based in Gillingham, Kent, became the first recipient of the mark outside of the south west and its first ‘national champion'.

Tory leader David Cameron presented Holbrook with the mark at the Voice09 conference in Birmingham last week, where he told delegates: ‘I want to see social enterprise at the heart of our efforts to rebuild our economy and I know that together we can achieve it.'

Holbrook, a Social Enterprise Ambassador, said: ‘Telling the public about our values, ethos and business model has been an ongoing challenge. The mark will be an important tool in communicating to our customers how we are using business to change the world for good.

‘We are proud and delighted to be the first national champion and recipient of the social enterprise mark.'

As a thank you for presenting the mark, Holbrook presented Cameron with a vinyl album by The Smiths.

Social Enterprise reported in December that the mark needed £1m to be rolled out nationally. Rise was awarded £374,000 by Capacitybuilders last year, £138,000 of which will be used for the mark, but further funding still needs to be secured.

Rise spokeswoman Anne Mountjoy said: ‘We have identified and approached a social enterprise in each region that will apply for the mark and, if successful, become a national champion and we are in the process of setting up a CIC as an overall umbrella organisation,' she said.

‘We are still looking for public sector resources and additional sponsorship to make this happen.'