2015 | OriginalPaper | Chapter
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Social enterprises are organizations where the money made is invested in social and community projects rather than distributed to shareholders. Although the term is relatively new, social enterprises themselves are not new with many of our prominent institutions having been established on charitable grounds and managed on a not-for-profi t basis. Most activities in this sector seek to tackle specifi c social problems, improve people’s life chances or protect the environment. They create shared wealth and give people a stake in the economy. Social enterprise is a growing sector: there are more than 68,000 social enterprises in the United Kingdom, contributing more than 4 billion to the UK economy and employing almost one million people.