Is your social enterprise sustainable? Through theory, practical information, and video case studies from around the world, this course helps you evaluate your model and develop a plan to take it to the next level by mapping your stakeholders, marketing your business, and managing change.

This course was developed by Middlesex University Business School, with Living in Minca and the Jindal Centre for Social Innovation & Entrepreneurship.

Syllabus

Week 1
Strategies for Sustainability
- Let's get started
  The next steps should give you a flavour of how this course works and what it will cover. You will meet the course team and be able to introduce yourself.
- Strategies for sustainability and scaling up
  In this section, we will evaluate different strategies to sustain or scale up your social enterprise
- Building an organisation based on values
  How do social enterprises manage the growth of their teams and operations while constantly strengthening their core mission?
Week 2
The Challenge of Changemaking
- Common challenges faced by social enterprises
  Analyze your social enterprise to figure out what challenges you will likely encounter.
- Leading in a changing environment
  Leadership strategies for convening supporters and managing change
- Evaluating social enterprise performance
  In this section, we will evaluate our social enterprise looking at its strengths and weaknesses.
Week 3
Achieving Social Impact at Scale
- Marketing strategies and storytelling for change
  This activity explores different marketing strategies to promote your social enterprise
- Funding and investment for impact
  Lack of funding opportunities is a disadvantage many social enterprises face. But some social enterprises can earn a profit sufficient to receive funding by investors, and increasingly new sources of capital are being unlocked.
- Measuring social impact
  How can you measure the social impact of your social enterprise?
- Conclusion
  In this activity, we review what you've learned in this course and provide some final resources and references for social enterprises

When would you like to start?

Start straight away and learn at your own pace. If the course hasn’t started yet you’ll see the future date listed below.

Available now

Learning on this course

You can take this self-guided course and learn at your own pace. On every step of the course you can meet other learners, share your ideas and join in with active discussions in the comments.

What will you achieve?

By the end of the course, you‘ll be able to...

Apply different business tools to scale the business
Identify current challenges of the business
Reflect on the steps to grow a social enterprise company

Who is the course for?

This course is intended for anyone interested in learning more about social enterprise, including entrepreneurs, charities and students.

Who developed the course?

Minca Ventures

Minca Ventures Ltd supports social innovation & social enterprises across the globe. The company offers consultancy, sustainable business modelling, training and educational courses, research, filmmaking, and storytelling communication strategies.

Middlesex University Business School

Founded in the 1960s, Middlesex University Business School is one of the largest Business Schools in the UK.

Jindal Centre for Social Innovation + Entrepreneurship

The Jindal Centre for Social Innovation + Entrepreneurship (JSiE) is an award-winning social impact centre at O.P. Jindal Global University located in North India.

Join this course

Start this course for free, upgrade for extra benefits, or buy Unlimited to access this course and hundreds of other short courses for a year.

Free

Join free and you will get:

Access to this course for 5 weeks

Upgrade

$49

Upgrade this course and you will get:

Access to this course for as long as it’s on FutureLearn
Access to this course’s tests as well as a print and digital Certificate of Achievement once you’re eligible

Join and upgrade

Unlimited

$189.99 for one year

Buy Unlimited and you will get:

Access to this course, and hundreds of other FutureLearn short courses and tests for a year
A printable digital Certificate of Achievement on all short courses once you’re eligible
The freedom to keep access to any course you've achieved a digital Certificate of Achievement on, for as long as the course exists on FutureLearn
The flexibility to complete your choice of short courses in your own time within the year

Find out more about upgrades or Unlimited.

Available until 22 November 2021 at 23:59 (UTC). T&Cs apply.

Learning on FutureLearn

Your learning, your rules

Courses are split into weeks, activities, and steps, but you can complete them as quickly or slowly as you like
Learn through a mix of bite-sized videos, long- and short-form articles, audio, and practical activities
Stay motivated by using the Progress page to keep track of your step completion and assessment scores

Join a global classroom

Experience the power of social learning, and get inspired by an international network of learners
Share ideas with your peers and course educators on every step of the course
Join the conversation by reading, @ing, liking, bookmarking, and replying to comments from others

Map your progress

As you work through the course, use notifications and the Progress page to guide your learning
Whenever you’re ready, mark each step as complete, you’re in control
Complete 90% of course steps and all of the assessments to earn your certificate

Want to know more about learning on FutureLearn? Using FutureLearn