How is the Social Enterprise Mark different?

There is often confusion between the various ‘badges’ available to organisations looking to prove their social and ethical credentials.

Social Enterprise MarkThe Social Enterprise Mark is an externally assessed accreditation, which provides an independent guarantee that an organisation has met sector-agreed criteria and is operating as a genuine social enterprise, committed to maximising social impact.

It is NOT a membership and approval is not automatic – not everyone applying for the Social Enterprise Mark is successful, but we do always provide advice and support on any changes required to meet the standard.

We also review Mark holders’ continuing eligibility, with a full reassessment every three years, and whenever an organisation is found to no longer be meeting our criteria, their accreditation licence is withdrawn.

To help illustrate the key differences between the Social Enterprise Mark and other certification/accreditation/membership schemes, we have produced a useful comparison which compares Social Enterprise Mark accreditation with B Corp certification, the Social Enterprise UK members badge and SEWF Verification.

Social Enterprise Mark comparison table