1.
CAPACITY BUILDING SEMINAR
Building enabling ecosystems for social enterprises
Brussels, 17th-18th February 2016
How do visibility and recognition tools facilitate
the access of social enterprise to finance and
access to markets?
Rocío Nogales
EMES Managing Director
GECES member (rapporteur of WG 2 ”Visibility of social enterprises")

2.
1. The crucial relevance of visibility
The EC considers it
one of the three
pillars of the SBI
together with finance
and legal frameworks.
Source: EC (2015) A map of social enterprises
and their eco-systems in Europe.

3.
2. What do we mean by visibility?
It means different things to different stakeholders (social
entrepreneurs, supporters, customers, public authorities,
traditional private sector).
It varies according to the scale (local, national, European,
global).
Three key interlinked concepts:
• Visibility
• Identity
• Recognition
“Capable of being seen” in physical and metaphorical terms.

4.
VISIBILITY
Sharper pictures &
stronger messages
IDENTITY
A more assertive
SE community
Representation ("voice(s)“) and cooperation
Scaling-up and adaptation
Common values (principles, aims, interests,
features, ways of working).
Political agenda
Networks and clusters
Known and trusted by key organisations,the
general public, public authorities.
Social entrepreneurship: attitudes, skills, activities
Social enterprise: A variety of legal forms,
business models and activities
Communication (on activities and impact)
Organizational communication (incl.
media relations)
Research and evidence
base (incl. statistics)
Transparency and accountability increase credibility.
Reporting on impact and social added value.
RECOGNITION
A stronger place
in society

5.
3. Added value of visibility
To access finance
 Social enterprise side: Capacity
building, lack of skills, mindset and processes.
 Funding community side: Lack of awareness,
knowledge, trust, experience and procedures, etc.
 Eco-system side: Policy alignment, stock-taking,
duplication minimization, etc.
It directly addresses some
of the barriers….

6.
To access markets
 Public sector: design adequate public procurement
processes.
 Private and corporate consumers/clients: know about
offer, values and impact; become “ambassadors”.
 Social enterprise community
level: engage in co-producing
policies and measures.
 Social enterprises: strengthen
capacity to expand activity-,
target-, or geographic-wise.

7.
4. Some illustrations
Labels and certification: Promising
but need researching, testing and
bottom up input.
Mapping studies: require
updates and improvements and
local stakeholder input.
EU-wide and other level fora
turning into concrete results
once agenda co-construction
and articulation takes place.

8.
Challenges for visibility: Barriers of a pragmatic,
cultural, nature-specific, strategic, and political nature.
Broader and more pluralistic notions of “finance”
and “markets” are needed:
· SE require hybrid finance.
· Large variance (country
and legal form).
· Markets are not limited
to “trading”.
5. Issues to consider

9.
Thanks for your comments and ideas.
rocio.nogales@emes.net
@emesnetwork
© Masha Ru, 2011