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THE GREAT DEBATE: 'This house believes that social enterprises should be established as for-profit entities only, and not for profits should remain in the charitable sector'.

With the establishment of ASENA, the South Australian branch, and the growing awareness and reaction to social enterprise in Government, there has been a certain amount of confusion as to the structure and governance of social enterprises. Some mistake social enterprises for charities; others see them clearly as for-profit-for-good. Some are simply confused and hence ignore the sector.

In Australia, the most commonly used definition of “social enterprise” is the FASES definition. The definition is called the FASES definition because it was derived from the 2010 Finding Australia’s Social Enterprise Sector (FASES) study.

According to this study ‘Social enterprises are organisations that:
Are led by an economic, social, cultural, or environmental mission consistent with a public or community benefit;
Trade to fulfil their mission;
Derive a substantial portion of their income from trade; and
Reinvest the majority of their profit/surplus in the fulfilment of their mission’ (Barraket et al, 2010)*.

This ‘debate’ is being called to further the discussion on whether social enterprises need to be further clarified and defined away from the NFP/Charitable sector or not. There are 4 speakers who will each present for a maximum of 8 minutes on their view, before the discussion is opened for Q&A and comments from the audience.

SPEAKERS:
David Pearson, former Exec Director of the Don Dunstan Foundation and CEO of Australian Alliance to End Homelessness, and an Advisory Board member for UniSA, will be arguing for the broadest possible range of social enterprises.

Associate Professor Bert Verhoeven, Program Director Innovation and Enterprise at Flinders University, will be arguing for social enterprises running as for profit, regardless of legal structure (inc NFP).

Professor Eddie Blass (Founder of Inventorium Pty Ltd and Adjunct at Torrens University Australia) will be arguing the case for social enterprises not being NFP/Charity.

Ranjit Gajendra Nadarajah (Strategic Research Programs and Partnerships) at Swinburne University of Technology will be exploring the differences in governance between NFP and Social Enterprises and the impact this has on their efficacy, to help us all make up our minds.

*Barraket, J., Collyer, N., O’Connor, M. and Anderson, H. (2010), Finding Australia’s social enterprise sector, Brisbane, Queensland: Australian Centre for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Studies, Queensland University of Technology and Social Traders.

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