Monday, February 24, 2014

Establishing Social Enterprises

As a strategic partner to the Malaysian Registry of Societies (ROS), the Accounting Research Institute (ARI) has been invited to participate in ROS's latest initiative to encourage societies that are currently registered with the agency to set up Social Enterprises as an alternative mean of sourcing funds for their activities. As a general definition, social enterprises are revenue-generating businesses,  operated mainly by non-profit organizations (NPOs).  Premised on two specific goals, a social enterprise firstly wants to achieve social, cultural, community economic or environmental outcomes; and secondly to earn revenue. To ensure long term sustainability, anon-profit organisation must not rely mainly on government grants to carry out its activities.  In many developed countries, NPOs through the establishment of social enterprises, provide huge employment opportunities for their community.  Known as a third sector, NPOs could contribute significantly in a country's effort to achieve a "high income" status.  In a sharing session during the workshop, the CEO of a social enterprise SCOPE, shares the benefits and challenges of operating his enterprise.