Holding- Hands

There has been a dramatic growth in the awareness and support of social entrepreneurship in the corporate spheres, which is ideal to harness social innovation due to numerous reasons. Not only do these corporate interests bring in stable resources but also act as bridge between community, sectors , institutions and/or cultures[1] Some of the leading change-makers are big corporates that have marketable assets, organizational capacity and a keen eye on the market opportunities.

In Ghana and Tanzania, Unilever is currently working with the local small-scale farmers to source raw materials, providing steady stream of cash flows as well as consultation to such farmers for a better produce. Shell is working in Uganda to catalyze the pro-poor market for solar home systems, tackling both the energy crisis as well as indoor pollution and health problems. EDF is working on off-grid energy access in Madagascar and ABB is working with WWF on energy access in Tanzania. The list of corporates working in this sphere ranges from access to energy and affordable water to pro-poor financial services and economic opportunity

Corporate Philanthropy hits right in the sweet spot of optimal social venture “enterprise-ability”. Such public–facing partnerships announce a social mission and often design a marketing campaign surrounding it. A perfect win-win situation. Cause-marketing campaigns not only spread a word of mouth for the social venture but also provide the perfect tool for scalability.[2] One of the major strengths of such partnerships/alliances is the supply chain strength of companies entering in this arena. Often in the life cycle of a business venture, philanthropy often comes at business maturity. With maturity such businesses have human and technical resources to improve the probability of success of social ventures. 

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[1] HBR Investing in Social Innovation – Jane Nelson and Beth Jenkins

[2] Making Non-profit Corporate Alliances Work – Shayna Samuels