Social Enterprise and Government- from SEA blog

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

SoCap09
I'm at the Social Capital Markets conference with 1000 other attendees, up from 600 last year. As opening speaker, Sonal Shah talked about the role of the White House Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation, which she directs. In doing some research recently I've come to realize what a big difference the formation of the SBA made in helping develop a robust small business sector in the U.S. It's clear that Obama's interest in social innovation may represent a similar kind of window for fostering social enterprise. The Office of Social Innovation's role right now seems to be the important one of cultivating a new culture of social innovation, by supporting grassroots innovations, accelerating what works, and mobilizing philanthropy, business and government to work together on this agenda. What I'm hearing from other leaders in social innovation is we need to engage ourselves in this effort in a different way than we might have worked previously. Social enterprises need to talk to government about what we do. Social enterprise innovations don't just feed the hungry and shelter the homeless, for instance - they create residents, homeowners, jobs, college graduates, etc.. What government needs to hear is how you do this, what it costs, what it saves in expenditures government might otherwise incur, how your enterprise helps sustain your programs, how you impact your clients, your neighborhood, the community, etc. We need a host of political champions at all levels of government who get what we do and see the value of supporting this approach amidst other competing priorities - in order to effect a sea change and move the dial on key social challenges. If every social enterprise spends 10% of its budget on this kind of advocacy and with SEA representing your interests in Washington, we can make strides toward a robust social enterprise sector.
Posted by Kris Prendergast at 7:46 AM
Labels: social capital, social enterprise, social innovation, White House Office of Social Innovation