Mr. Tim Griffiths:

There are supports out there for social enterprises of various shapes and sizes, yet sometimes there are barriers for them on the basis of their corporate structures. In order to avail of some of these supports, you have to be, for example, a not-for-profit organisation. Even though somebody is doing a positive thing for our society, they are precluded from availing of these things because of their corporate structure. We believe there should be a specific legal structure for social enterprises that incorporates both not-for-profit and for-profit enterprises. We understand these supports were set up with good intentions but one of the unforeseen implications is there are barriers that were not meant to be there.

There are markets, the UK being one, which have a specific legal entity for social enterprise. This means organisations, whether for profit or not for profit, can avail of certain supports. It works both ways: there are some the for-profits cannot avail of and others that some of the not-for-profits cannot avail of. We engage people from the business community to help and support social entrepreneurs. Many barriers at the early and developing stages are around legal structures. We introduce them to leading legal companies who will support and advise them on that but there are challenges. They have three or four different options, and there is no one size that works for everybody. That is why we believe there is a gap that needs to be addressed.