《上海日报》2011年3月9日
作者：Larry Zhu、Jennifer Zeng

社会企业在中国仍是新生事物，它们致力于用商业模型来解决社会问题，它们与慈善基金会有某些相似。

SOCIAL enterprises are new to China. They're companies dedicated to using business models to solve social problems - they share a vision with charitable foundations.

While the number of social enterprises in China has surged over the past five years, support has lagged behind, in terms of laws that provide oversight, funding sources, and the foundations and other organizations that support them.

The vast majority of China's social enterprises are in their infancy and in need of funding.

A Bain & Company research, conducted in conjunction with the charitable foundation One Foundation, shows that 85 percent to 90 percent of the Chinese mainland's social enterprises are overly dependent on donations.

The trouble is that most social enterprises in China are built solely on passion - people wanting to contribute to the social good in a particular area with little thought to creating a sustainable business model.

It's important to understand that social enterprises with different business models have different missions and funding needs.

Two increasingly popular forms of social enterprises are hybrid nonprofits and social businesses.

A hybrid nonprofit is committed to a social or environmental cause; this model depends on a combination of outside funding and its own income. Any profits are poured back into either the company or targeted cause.

Ethnic embroidery

For example, this hybrid approach has worked for the Qiang Embroidery Career Supporting Center, created with an investment from the One Foundation to teach ethnic embroidery skills to women and help them sell their projects.

Now profitable, it's raised the women's monthly income and created 7,000 jobs.

In contrast, social businesses are entirely for-profit ventures. Funding for their social agenda comes almost entirely from its own income.
Social businesses often are a powerful catalyst for social change, with the independence and funding level needed to innovate solutions to difficult social issues.

Take Shokay. The Shanghai-based social business is working to improve the lives of herders and women knitters in remote western China by purchasing their yak fibers. Profits are reinvested in Shokay's only shareholder: its nonprofit foundation.

Foundations play a key role in keeping social enterprises of all types alive and flourishing.

Chinese social enterprises and the foundations that support them need to understand this landscape - and the requirements for success - if they hope to become influential.

Larry Zhu is a partner of Bain & Company's in Shanghai office. Jennifer Zeng is a manager in Bain & Company's Beijing office.

来源：Shanghai Daily News