Future Trends in Social Enterprise

In my previous post I talked about Social Enterprise Trends to expect in 2009. I outlined 5 key ones:

1. Rise in social startups and skills available to the sector
2. Higher expectations from funders
3. More support for big ideas
4. More partnerships and collectives
5. Blurring of lines between Charities and Social Enterprises

The trends outlined below however, are not time-boxed to just 2009. These are shifts I believe will happen at some point between now and the next few years, and are therefore worth considering in your future planning.

Future Trends in Social Enterprise - 2009 onwards

1. Disruptive innovations will continue to flourish as commercial sector skills are turned towards solving social problems.
   
   
2. Social innovation from the developing world will begin to drive developed world commercial innovation. We are already seeing this in the way western banks are looking at micro-loans and telecoms firms are looking at mobile payment systems.
   
   
3. Corporate Social Responsibility departments will have to adapt and revise their policies, because social enterprises are redefining the parameters of giving and support as they continue to effect major social change.
   
   
4. Increasing pressure on social sector to become business viable will result in more social startups emerging as social enterprises rather than charities.
   
   
5. Charities on the other hand will get smarter in their trading setups, further confusing the definition of Social Enterprise.
   
   
6. As the Green movement embeds further into the global cultural psyche, both social enterprises and charities will face increasing expectation to be green just to be credible.
   
   
7. Social Enterprise will mobilise more people to enter the social sector by making it more competitive, responsive and modernised.
   
   
8. The CIC will start to come into its own, and will evolve into a more viable organisational definition.
   
   
9. As more organisations begin to deliver both financial return and social change, a more practical measurements of Social Return On Investment will arise. Over time we should expect to see clear standardisations of SROI for comparative purposes.
   
   
10. As SROI measurement standardises we should see increasing numbers of Social VC's, philanthropists or Trusts whose funding has social conditions. Some of these currently exist, but regardless of their mission statements, returns are still predominantly measured on financial profits or ability to repay these social loans and investments.
    
    
11. New business models monetising social need will continue to arise, as social entrepreneurs look to innovate under pressure of financial difficulty and social demand.
    
    
12. If social collaboration really does take off, we should also see an increase in collaborative shared services that let small social enterprises and charities focus on their core goals without worrying about peripheral activities like HR, accounting and fundraising.
    
    
13. As the social sector evolves down the commercial route, and as more commercial sector staff enter the social space, the general quality of skills expected from CEO's and managers is going to increase.
    
    
14. Consequently I'd expect a trend towards higher wages for nonprofit workers as demands cause skills profiles to increase.
    
    
15. Finally we should also expect to see more courses and better training for social entrepreneurs, with something like the IOMBA specifically for social entrepreneurs.