Social Enterprise Census Scotland 2015

27th March 2015

Across Scotland, enterprising community groups, charities and other organisations are recognising that grants are in decline and that other forms of trading and income generation provide a growing opportunity.

A consortium of support bodies and government agencies have come together to launch a high profile and ambitious study. This large-scale Social Enterprise Census will take an official count of the entire population of non-profit-distributing organisations that are carrying out some level of trading for the good of Scotland.

The findings will be made widely available to ensure that the contribution of your organisation and others like it are better recognised and better supported.

Is your organisation trading for the benefit of others? If you can answer ‘yes' to all or the majority of the following questions we want to hear from you:

- Does your organisation have social or environmental goals?
- Are you operating independently of the public sector?
- Are you earning some level of income from delivering contracts or selling goods/services?
- Do you aspire to greater financial independence through earned income (not reliant on grants)?
- Do you reinvest your profits and retain assets entirely in pursuit of your social or environmental goals?

You might operate as an enterprising Charity, SCIO, Company (without share capital), CIC, or Society. You might take a recognisable form such as Housing Association, Development Trust, Credit Union, Social Firm, or Co-operative. You may earn income from fees or contracts in a variety of fields - everything from the arts to social care. Whatever the case, we want to know more about your organisation and its work.

Please take 15-20 minutes to register some basic information and give us your views (it's best here if the person providing information has a good grasp of the finances in your organisation).

You can register your information here:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=OSVuNxhkbHJ4_2fGHZNBcsgg_3d_3d

This link is uniquely tied to your email address and a response from the enterprising charity or social enterprise you represent. Please do not forward this message to other organisations.

Any information that you provide will be treated in the strictest confidence by the team at Social Value Lab and used only for research purposes.

If you are unable to respond, or complete fully, a representative from Social Value Lab may be in touch to gather relevant details by phone.

As a thank you for taking the time to respond you will have the option of entering a FREE PRIZE DRAW to win an iPad Air. In partnership with Run Native (www.runnative.co.uk) and Social Enterprise Networks, we will also be announcing winners of a great selection of weekly prizes to be contributed by some of Scotland's leading social enterprises. If that's not enough, we will provide each of the first 3 respondents with a special gift, so get your response in quickly.

Thank you for taking in Scotland's first Social Enterprise Census!

Duncan Thorpe
Social Enterprise Scotland