There are allies across many movements that focus on increasing social and environmental responsibility and impact within conventional business models. Many of these businesses are still under pressure to extract profit for private investors and priorities may shift during economic downturns, periods of rapid growth, changes in leadership or ownership or other transitions. Social enterprises are designed to ensure they always put their purpose first. At SEWF, we focus on enterprises and ecosystem builders that put purpose first in all operational decisions and actively embed and protect their purpose in their enterprise design. Social enterprises ensure that the majority of surpluses are also used to pursue social or environmental purposes. And this further helps to ensure the enterprise always puts its purpose first. Social enterprises are businesses that generate income from the sale of product or services. Earned income reduces the competition and dependency created by restricted funding. It creates more space for innovative, transformative approaches and opens new opportunities for collaboration and collective action. We are committed to a self-sustaining revenue model. We focus on enterprises and ecosystem builders with the same commitment.

Social enterprises are businesses that generate income from the sale of product or services. Earned income reduces the competition and dependency created by restricted funding. It creates more space for innovative, transformative approaches and opens new opportunities for collaboration and collective action. We are committed to a self-sustaining revenue model. We focus on enterprises and ecosystem builders with the same commitment.

We recognise that some of the greatest energy and innovation in the new economy movement comes from youth, Indigenous people, rural areas and communities that benefit the least from the current economic system. We actively engage enterprises and networks in marginalised communities and countries and we work to increase their voice and influence. 

We recognise that people living in the community have the best knowledge of their own local context, challenges and systems. We follow the ‘nothing about us without us’ principle. Any initiative in a particular geography is carried out through local partnerships and in a way that strengthens local networks and ecosystem builders. 

The current economic system prioritises growth, encourages concentration of power and resources and measures organisational success based on traditional metrics like number of employees, number of offices, membership or budget size. We recognise that each enterprise in the new economy movement has its own unique niche, and we value and celebrate enterprises and networks of all sizes. We catalyse change by building the ecosystem and increasing opportunities for trade, collaboration and collective action. 

SEWF recognises that the term ‘social enterprise’ is often a modern way of describing the core nature of trading activities in Indigenous, First Nations and other traditional cultures around the world: purpose-driven enterprises that exist to benefit the community in a way that respects the natural environment.  

Many Indigenous people live in countries where they have become a minority ethnic group and continue to face threats to their sovereignty, economic wellbeing, cultural capital and deep inequity and discrimination in relation to opportunities. When working locally, we always seek to understand the cultural context of countries and communities we work with. Through our work with local partners, we aim to raise awareness of cultural inequalities and discrimination, and we strive to use social enterprise as a lever to tackle these issues. 

SEWF is committed to working in a way that deeply respects and enhances the cultural heritage of the places we work. In practice, this means ensuring culturally diverse participation in projects that we lead or co-lead and designing culturally relevant and culturally meaningful processes.