Mission-Centric Social Enterprise

The enterprise is central to the organization's social mission. These social enterprises are created for the express purpose of advancing the mission using a self-financing model.

Organizations created to employ disadvantaged populations (employment development) and microfinance institutions are examples of this type of social enterprise.

Mission-centric social enterprises often take the form of embedded social enterprises.

Mouvement Paysan de Papaye, an example of Mission-Centric Social Enterprise

The mission of Mouvement Paysan de Papaye (MPP) in rural Haiti is "to establish at the community level cooperative enterprises that allow the peasants to advance economically." MPP's mission is the foundation of its social programs, guiding decisions ranging from which industries to enter, to how to design its business models.

MMP uses social enterprise as strategy to create economic opportunities for its clients through new jobs, by opening markets, and supporting self-employment. The organization's target population benefits from its social enterprises in four ways, as: employees, business owners, customers and community members. As well, MMP's enterprises achieve supplementary impact by mitigating another critical social problem its clients face: food insecurity.

In central Haiti, where food supplies are unreliable; little sustainable farming knowledge exists; and there is a lack of access to agricultural inputs, people often go hungry. To address this problem and accomplish its mission, MPP began three mission-centric cooperative enterprises: a bakery that makes and sells traditional Haitian flat bread, a farm, and a store that sells agricultural and farm inputs.

The bakery provides 24 jobs for MMP’s clients in addition to a reliable food supply to the community.
The store promotes sustainable cultivation and food production, and hence, fosters self-employment (farming) and creates more jobs.
The third business, a 50-acre farm, grows produce and animal feed, and raises livestock, supplying the local population with a sustainable source of food and over a hundred jobs.

In sum, MPP's three businesses create nearly 200 jobs for local peasants and supply essential goods and services to the community.

Financially, the social enterprises are self-sufficient, not only covering their own costs, but earning a surplus which MMP uses to subsidize its literacy, advocacy, micro-loans, agricultural and education programs.