Subject
Report on social impact investing in Portugal
Details
Intermediary Org: Alliance for Social Impact Investing
Year:2014
Extract…
Since 2006 the French and United Kingdom markets for Social Enterprises have grown dramatically, completely changing the social sector landscape. It now operates in a more sustainable manner, supported by a network of enablers, in an environment that brings social society, civic society, corporate society and government one step closer to working together for a common purpose.
In Portugal, in the meantime, several scattered well meaning Social Businesses were created but little was done about creating the conditions for a real market to emerge. The Social sector as a whole hasn’t fundamentally changed while the environment has deteriorated considerably, driven by the economy crisis. In our view, a Social Enterprises market does not exist today as the key drivers for its creation are not in place.
However, worthy social institutions of considerably size do exist with the potential for becoming the basis of the market, as long as they show the willingness and ability to grow and the right conditions are created. If they tried, today, they wouldn’t be able to.
Trying to create a market for social enterprises is essentially the same as approaching the problem of financing of the social sector as a whole – with a profitability twist.
