What is the Social Enterprise Silver Mark?
Recognising commitment to achieving the highest standards in social enterprise
Prove your commitment to continuous improvement and join a pathway to recognised standards of excellence in social enterprise.
The new Social Enterprise Silver Mark is an amplified standard of social enterprise accreditation, which demonstrates your business’ commitment to a course of continuous improvement, working towards proving your social enterprise excellence.
This enhanced accreditation provides a pathway of purposeful progression to the Social Enterprise Gold Mark, the highest standard of social enterprise excellence.
Check your eligibility
Check if you are likely to meet our criteria using our simple eligibility quiz.
Register your interest today
Complete the short registration form and a member of our friendly team will be in touch to answer your questions.
What are the benefits?
Demonstrate best practice in social enterprise
Promote best practice and leadership in operating as an established social enterprise, which has submitted to the scrutiny of an impartial and robust external assessment process. With full reassessment every three years, you can assure customers/partners that you are operating ethically, commercially and upholding recognised standards of best practice.
Prove your commitment to continuous improvement
Demonstrate your organisations commitment to a course of continuous improvement, following a pathway to the highest standards of social enterprise excellence.
Tailored assessment support and feedback
Receive tailored support and guidance to meet the Social Enterprise Silver Mark standard. You will be designated with a named assessment contact, who will guide you through the process and be on hand to answer any questions.
Following assessment, you will receive tailored feedback to provide benchmarks for future development and improvement.
Progress on a pathway to proving social enterprise excellence
The Social Enterprise Silver Mark provides a pathway to achieving the Social Enterprise Gold Mark, the highest standard of excellence in social enterprise.
By achieving the Silver Mark, you can gain recognition of your purposeful progression along a pathway of excellence.
What are the criteria?
The Social Enterprise Silver Mark assessment framework has been developed to help organisations of all shapes and sizes to prove best practice in social enterprise and a commitment to continual improvement, by maintaining and building upon this standard.
The criteria of the Social Enterprise Silver Mark builds upon the six criteria of the original Social Enterprise Mark (which also form part of the Silver Mark assessment). These are that your organisation must:
- have formally defined social and/or environmental objectives (or dedicate at least 51% of its annual profits to an organisation who does);
- be able to demonstrate that it is an independent business;
- earn at least 50% of its annual income from trading;
- commit the principal proportion (51% +) of annual profit to social/environmental purposes;
- on dissolution, be committed to distributing all residual assets for social/environmental purposes;
- be able to demonstrate that social/environmental objects are being achieved.
The Social Enterprise Silver Mark assesses five additional criteria:
- robust governance
- effective stakeholder engagement
- ethical and good business practice
- financial transparency
- social impact reporting
Organisations that already hold the Social Enterprise Mark will only be assessed against the five additional criteria. New applicants will be assessed against the full criteria.
Click here to download the Social Enterprise Silver Mark assessment framework.
How do I apply?
Check your eligibility
Check if you are likely to meet the criteria using our simple eligibility quiz.
Please contact us if you have any concerns about qualifying or would like to discuss the criteria in more detail, call us on 0345 504 6536 or via email.
Register your interest
Complete our short Registration Form and we will be in touch to discuss the next steps.
Find out more
Click here to find out more about what’s involved in the assessment process.
How much does it cost?
There is an annual licence fee for the Social Enterprise Silver Mark, which is calculated based on the turnover of your business.
The fee tier will be assessed each year, so if turnover has increased or decreased, the licence fee payable will adjust accordingly.
The annual fee entitles you to:
- an independent external assessment against a robust accreditation framework
- personalised support and guidance to meet the criteria
- tailored feedback to provide benchmarks for future development
- the use of the Social Enterprise Silver Mark logo to prove your commitment to achieving the highest standards in social enterprise
All fees are subject to VAT – the annual licence fees shown above are exclusive of VAT.
All fees are inclusive of the Social Enterprise Mark licence fee.
Applicants are invoiced up front for the licence fee.
International applications will be subject to an additional non-refundable administration fee of £165. If the application is unsuccessful this fee is retained.
Please note – all fees are subject to regular review.
| Annual income | licence Fee |
|---|---|
| less than £100,000 | £944 & VAT |
| £100,000 – £199,999 | £1,032 & VAT |
| £200,000 – £499,000 | £1,120 & VAT |
| £500,000 – £999,999 | £1,208 & VAT |
| £1m – £2.99m | £1,328 & VAT |
| £3m – £5.99m | £1,872 & VAT |
| £6m – £9.99m | £2,582 & VAT |
| £10m – £14.99m | £3,280 & VAT |
| £15m – £29.99m | £6,380 & VAT |
| £30m – £49.99m | £8,250 & VAT |
| £50m – £99.99m | £9,900 & VAT |
| £100m and above | £11,830 & VAT |
Missed our virtual launch event on the 7th of November 2023? We invite you to catch up on the highlights and learn more about the Social Enterprise Silver Mark.
Register your interest
Complete this short form to register your interest in applying for accreditation. We will then be in touch to provide more information and answer any questions you may have.
