2010 SEEP Social Enterprise Case Profile Competition

Drew Tulchin of Social Enterprise Associates was a guest blogger at the 2010 SEEP Annual Conference.

As Program Facilitator of the Value Initiative at SEEP, we advance sustainable economic development to help people out of poverty. The practitioner learning programs (PLP) on Business Planning for Sustainability and Scale-up explores how to grow social enterprises to serve/benefit low income people. One of the activities we undertook to address this goal was to co-host the Social Enterprise Case Profile Competition with Beyond Profit this fall, collecting stories of international social enterprises about growth, scale, and transition to highlight organizational successes and challenges.

We received flourishing stories from all over the world, and were impressed by the organizations’ great works presented through the documents. All the top three winners embrace the fair trade model to create jobs for low-income people, but it’s interesting to see each of them integrating additional innovations into the business:

• Behind the Veil in Pakistan: Connecting thousands of rural women embroiderers to profitable markets through a microfranchising network of mobile sales agents
• MASUTA in India: Selling silk spun yarn products and allowing women employees to take ownership of their organization
• Sharan Craft Center in Armenia: Producing high-end children's sweaters and knit home accessories for global and domestic markets, with a sister business selling wooden furniture

We have also listed all stories on the SEEP website. It’s definitely worthy of your time and attention to get to know these great efforts and dedication in international social enterprise!