As a charity, Groundwork Pennine Lancashire in the UK faced a constant struggle like many other charities to remain financially solvent. However, today the organization operates as a successful social enterprise, offering services to the private sector and investing the profits into the community. This transformation took place when the organization decided to appoint a leading industry figure as its executive director.
Groundwork Pennine Lancashire's traditional strength was in the area of social and environmental sustainability. However, it suffered from the challenges of economic viability. The appointment of a new head brought about a change in the organization's philosophy and work approach. The new head successfully managed to shed off the charity culture of the organization by reducing its dependence on grants and public funding.
The organization with its new, commercially feasible structure, helped build services aimed at supporting the private sector. It offered business support, landscape design and construction services to private companies. This resulted in an increased revenue generation from private funding and a drastically reduced dependence on public funding.
Groundwork Pennine Lancashire approaches every project with a holistic mindset. It ensures that every project it undertakes has clear social, financial and environmental goals. The enterprise helps its clients achieve their own sustainability goals, which is a unique offering in the market.
Due to its financial sustainability and the success of its projects, the organization has been able to invest significantly in new social projects that make an impact on the maximum number of people in the community. The organization operates as a social enterprise, and has no shareholders. It instead provides social dividends to support the local community.
Groundwork Pennine Lancashire recently invested £100,000 in a project that supports the involvement of youth in their local communities, particularly in areas with a greater incidence of anti-social behavior. The enterprise has a current reserve level of £1.3 million for redistribution to community projects. This healthy reserve is the result of its profitable services it provides to local businesses.
Source:
The Guardian
