3 social enterprises shaping the world

Times have changed and businesses are no longer limited to making a profit for the sake of profit. Social enterprises are starting to gain ground in various markets, and the people behind them are setting out to solve major societal problems for the sake of a better future. Here are some of the top-brass social enterprises that are truly making a mark.

Voidstarter

With rent and real estate prices reaching all new heights, people are often forced into spending insane amounts of money just to jumpstart their businesses or learning centre. The problem isn’t the lack of properties available as there are countless abandoned units that could be used for various purposes. This is where Voidstarter steps in to provide affordable housing for an array of clients.

Voidstarter finds vacant properties and puts them to good use by converting them into temporary centres for employment counselling, job training and adult education. The centre’s main target are at-risk youths. Here, they can learn new skills that could help them out later on in life.

Exponential, Inc.

French-American CEO and entrepreneur Dom Einhorn is at the helm of Exponential, Inc. (XPO²), a non-governmental organisation (NGO) crowdfunding platform that targets small- to medium-sized businesses. The CEO handpicks these NGOs and personally visits them to see just how much of an impact they could make to their cause.

At its core, XPO² is basically what Kickstarter is to entrepreneurs. Einhorn’s goal of disrupting the fundraising industry has come to fruition with the launch of a new crowdfunding platform, alongside its own rewards-based crowdfunding campaign.

The new crowdfunding platform offers contributors the chance to acquire materialistic tokens. However, what XPO² is really banking on is non-materialistic rewards through “net social impact.” XPO² defines net social impact as the amount of good a dollar can do. The company guarantees its contributors that each dollar they contribute goes directly to their chosen NGOs to make the maximum social impact possible.

XPO² offers its platform to deserving but cash-strapped organisations for free. In doing so, XPO² is able to fully strengthen its impact on various societal problems. The company is planning to raise US$500,000 (AU$681,000) to support Einhorn’s hand-picked NGOs such as the Morani Preserve, the Bully Rehab Awareness Gym, and several others worldwide. As of this writing, XPO² has already raised over US$13,000 (AU$17,710) despite only launching a few days back.

XPO² is handling fundraising in two ways, the oth er is through direct contributions from the crowdfunding platform. The other is by cashless contributions wherein consumers shop for their needs from participating merchants like Walgreens and JCPenney’s.

This unique way of contributing is accessible through a special browser extension from XPO². With it installed, consumers can gain exclusive deals that could cut off five to 40 percent on their purchases while giving a portion of their purchase to a chosen organisation.

Through its platforms, XPO² is able to promote a healthy ecosystem that could benefit countless NGOs that are struggling to make ends meet.

TOMS

While on a trip to Argentina, TOMS founder Blake Mycoskie bore witness to one of the region’s problems, which was a lack of proper footwear for children. Children had to walk from home to school using raggedy sandals or shoes that offer little to no protection at all.

That’s when Mycoskie decided to turn TOMS into something special. To help out children without proper footwear, Mycoskie made it a promise to donate a pair of shoes to a child in need for every pair that was purchased from TOMS. TOMS has been able to donate over 60 million pairs of shoes. Aside from that, TOMS was also able to restore the eyesight of over 400,000 people and provided over 335,000 weeks of drinkable water. The company also centres on providing safe childbirth to mothers worldwide.

These social enterprises have made it their mission to completely revolutionise the world as we know it. Lives are being changed through their business models and hopefully, they get the much-needed support from the people around them. We’re also hoping that more of these innovative social enterprises pop up in the near future.

This story was written using press releases sent to us.