Unreasonable in Ireland

When it comes to social innovation, the question on everyone’s lips these days is whether social entrepreneurship will deliver what it promises: to challenge the status quo and ignite social change by channelling its skills for public benefit. In Ireland, the question is perhaps more urgent than elsewhere as the economic crisis makes resources more and more scarce.

To try and find some of the answers to this question, the Centre for Nonprofit Management and the School of Business at Dublin’s Trinity College launched a mapping study between February and March 2011. What follows is a breakdown of some of the more interesting results.

The 5Ws of social enterprise in Ireland

What: The majority of social enterprises fall into the “development and housing” sector (20 per cent) and 17 per cent in the “social services” sector. Social enterprises are evenly distributed among “education”, “health” and “arts” (around 12 per cent) while only 4 per cent of social enterprises deal with environmental issues. Other fields in which there are few social enterprises are philanthropy, sports and religion. 

Where: Almost half of Ireland’s social enterprises (45 per cent) are based in Dublin. Of the remaining 55 per cent, the majority is based in Leinster (the county surrounding Dublin). The majority (61 per cent) stated they had local remit and 21 per cent an international remit.

Why: Irish social enterprises are built on the firm desire to bring about social change. Creating a replicable model and raising awareness is far more important to them than maximising profits.

Who: Almost three quarters of social enterprises (68 per cent) have full time paid employees. A large number of enterprises (62 per cent) rely on volunteer involvement

When: One quarter (26 per cent) of social enterprises were established since 2005.

How: More than 40 per cent of social enterprises generate a small income but not enough to meet all financial needs. A little more than 50 per cent of social enterprises received more than half of their funding from statutory grants like the national lottery or EU funding. Very little support is received from the corporate and philanthropic sectors.

The data has been taken from the official report“Mapping Social Entrepreneurial Enterprises in Ireland” which took into account the answers of the 194 organisations which responded to the survey.

To find out more: www.euclidnetwork.eu