Social Enterprise UK (SEUK; previously The Social Enterprise Coalition) is a community interest company founded in April 2002 in the United Kingdom.[1] It functions as the national membership and campaigning body for the social enterprise movement in Britain.
Organisation
SEUK liaises with similar groups in each region of England, as well as in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. It is a membership organisation. In 2011, more than seven thousand social enterprises were members of SEUK. Social enterprises sometimes deliver public services.
History
The Social Enterprise Coalition was founded in April 2002 (SEUK) as a community interest company.[1]
In 2007, Claire Dove took over the role of chair from Glenys Thornton, she runs the social enterprise Blackburne House in Liverpool.[4]
Between 2007 and 2010, the organisation ran a social enterprise ambassador scheme. It spent £860,000 on the project.[5] The Office of the Third Sector support the ambassador scheme.[6]
Since January 2010, SEUK's chief executive has been Peter Holbrook. Previously he had worked at the social enterprise Sunlight Development Trust, based in Gillingham, Kent.[7][8] In took over the role after Jonathan Bland.[8]
In 2011, Social Enterprise Coalition was rebranded as Social Enterprise UK as it is now known.[9] Its company name was changed from 'The Social Enterprise Coalition' to 'Social Enterprise Coalition CIC' in 2013.[1]
In 2012, SEUK ran the 'Not In Our Name' campaign against Salesforce.com, a global software and CRM company, that had begun using the term 'social enterprise' to describe its products and had applied for 'social enterprise' trademarks in the EU, US, Australia, and Jamaica. The campaign was supported by similar organisations in the US (the Social Enterprise Alliance), Canada, South Africa, and Australia. An open letter was sent to the CEO and Chairman of Salesforce.com asking Salesforce.com to stop using the term 'social enterprise'. It was signed by people and organisations around the world, including Muhammad Yunus (Grameen Bank founder and Nobel Peace Prize laureate), Richard G. Wilkinson and Kate Pickett (co-authors of The Spirit Level). Salesforce said they would withdraw applications to trademark the term 'social enterprise', and remove any references to 'social enterprise' in its marketing materials in the future.[10]
In July 2012, Social Enterprise London announced that it would be integrating its key activities with SEUK.
In January 2017, Victor Adebowale became the chair of SEUK.
