The Social Enterprise Mark is campaigning to make social enterprise the business of choice, for everyone! It’s time to stand together. There are more than 400 Mark holders across the UK, working in many different ways, with many different legal structures.

Register for the Mark

Applying for the Mark couldn’t be easier: you can call our helpline on 0845 504 6536 – we’re here to help Monday to Friday, 9am til 5pm – or you can complete the simple online form. When you register for the Mark, you will be sent your login details by email. Verify your login and you can complete the form or we’ll help you.
There is a licence fee for the Mark, which is charged annually plus VAT according to the annual income of the business. From as little as £1 per day, a day at a conference or a quarter page advert in the Big Issue, you can get the only true validation for social enterprises. Click to view the price of the Mark.

You may find it helpful to have a copy of your governing document and your annual accounts to hand. In a nutshell, we need to know if your company has social and/or environmental aims, that your company has it’s own constitution and governing body, that at least 50% of the company profits are spent on socially beneficial purposes, that the company earns at least 50% of its income from trading*, that your company can demonstrate that social/environmental aims are being achieved, and finally that if your company ceased trading, remaining assets would be distributed for social/environmental purposes. You can download the full criteria.

To reflect the needs of the sector and to enable it to grow, we continually review the criteria. Please do get in touch if you want to work co-operatively and collaboratively with constructive suggestions about further criteria development.

Understanding the criteria

*Are you a new start (with less than 1 year of trading)? As a new start , you can still get the Mark, if you pledge to reach a level of trading, which is at least 50% of your total income within 18 months. We are happy to advise you, so please call 0845 504 6536.

Are you a co-operative? Whether a co-operative is eligible or not depends very much on the wording of the constitution, as the constitution should meet all the relevant criterion. Currently, 9 out of 10 co-operatives, which have applied for the Mark, have been awarded the Mark. A co-operative operating to co-operative principles is an acceptable social or environmental object, even if the primary object is commercial trading. We will need (and we can help you to gather) the evidence required to demonstrate how you operate to co-operative principles, in particular Co-operative principle 7, concern for the community.

Do you feel that you do not quite meet the criteria? We have helped a growing number of Mark holders to change their constitution and developed some case studies to explain just how easily this can be done. Find out how.

Why get the Mark?

Discover the power of collective marketing and be part of frequent campaigns alongside hundreds of other Mark holders, creating publicity and networking opportunities for your social enterprise that you could not afford alone! As a Mark holder, you can take part in our forthcoming ‘50 in 250′ campaign, by emailing marketing@socialenterprisemark.org.uk.

Influence supply chains and change private and public sectors’ procurement behaviour by adding your enterprise to the only online directory of certified social enterprises; a valuable way of promoting your products and services.

Celebrate your achievement as a social enterprise and proudly display the Social Enterprise Mark in all your marketing materials. Benefit from a multimedia pack of tools that will help you inform both your employees and external stakeholders about the impact of social enterprise and how it goes a long way to make a difference!

Collaborate in a network with like-minded social enterprises, all engaged in making innovation work to deliver a better society and benefit from ideas on how to best integrate the Mark into your marketing strategies, invaluably informing the development of your own marketing strategy along the way.

Interact using the most up-to-date social networking media tools such as Facebook, Twitter and You Tube to revolutionise your communications, joining hundreds of like-minded social enterprises with the Social Enterprise Mark. The Mark enables you to keep a finger on the pulse of social enterprise development by showcasing real world case studies of Mark holders’ social impact.

Register for the Mark