Aspiring Social Enterprise accreditation
Get started on the pathway to social enterprise good practice and excellence
Register your interest today
Complete the short registration form and a member of our friendly team will be in touch to answer your questions.
Applicants are supported on their journey to social enterprise good practice and excellence.
What are the benefits?
Prove your commitment to social enterprise principles
By displaying the Aspiring Social Enterprise accreditation, you can engage with stakeholders and demonstrate how you are standing up to the scrutiny of external assessment to work towards recognised standards of good practice.
We will support you to get started on the pathway to achieving social enterprise good practice and excellence.
Receive tailored support
Benefit from a tailored service to support your journey to becoming an accredited social enterprise, including:
- Refining your governance documents
- General advice on legal structures
- How to qualify different sources of income
- General advice on how you can report on impact created for social beneficiaries
Gain useful feedback
We will conduct an annual review of your progress towards achieving the Social Enterprise Mark and provide support and advice on meeting this recognised standard of good practice. This will hopefully provide useful considerations for future development.
This helps to improve your organisation’s efficiency and effectiveness as a developing social enterprise.
Support to measure and articulate your social impact
In supporting you to work towards achieving the Social Enterprise Mark, we offer guidance to enable you to get started on measuring and articulating your social impact.
Our social impact questions are designed to help you think about the social impact you create, and to communicate this clearly and succinctly.
Access our unique international network of accredited social enterprises
Share your news with our extensive international audience – we publish a weekly news bulletin featuring updates from our international network of accredited social enterprises. We can also share your news on our website and via our social media channels.
You can also benefit from discounted rates for our conference, which provides valuable networking opportunities.
Do I qualify?
Be primarily dedicated to social objectives
Applicants must have clearly defined social/environmental objectives, which should be articulated within the legal objects of the organisation, e.g. Articles of Association.
Be an independent business
The business must be independently registered, with no public or government agency or body, or other private, corporate bodies, holding decision making control of the organisation.
Be planning to become sustainable through trading income
Applicants must be aiming to earn 50% or more of their income from trading within 3 years, and be able to demonstrate how they plan to achieve this.
As a minimum, an organisation must answer a few short questions describing their business plans and broadly confirm their expected sources of income and expenditure for the forthcoming year. If one is available, a copy of a business plan that includes a financial forecast of trading activities can also be submitted.
Commit to dedicating a majority of any annual profit to social purposes
There should be relevant clauses in governing documents, which confirm that the business is trading in support of a clear social/environmental purpose and that a principle proportion (51% or more) of any profit is dedicated to such purposes.
Have an asset lock clause (or similar)
Applicants should have relevant clauses in governing documents, which confirm a commitment that, in the event of dissolution, any residual assets will be distributed towards achieving social objectives.
Have a vision of how social objectives will be achieved
Applicants should be able to describe how they plan to achieve their social objectives. As a minimum they must answer a few short questions describing their business plans, the social beneficiaries and nature of the social outcomes being targeted.
Organisations will eventually be required to answer a set of questions designed to explore their social impact, as part of the transition from being an Aspiring Social Enterprise to achieving full Social Enterprise Mark Holder status.
How much does it cost?
There is an annual licence fee of £165+VAT. Staged payment plans are available to spread the cost of the licence.
The annual fee entitles you to:
- tailored feedback to provide benchmarks for future development
- support in working towards recognised standards of good practice
- share your news with our extensive online audience
- discounted rates for our annual conference
Applicants are invoiced up front for the licence fee. In the unlikely event that an application is unsuccessful, the licence fee will be refunded, minus a £100 assessment fee.
International applications will be subject to an additional non-refundable administration fee of £165.
Please note – all fees are subject to regular review.
Register your interest
Complete this short form to register your interest in applying for accreditation. We aim to respond within 5 working days to provide more information and answer any questions you may have.