Building an effective partner-
ship is challenging. First of all,
you need to identify the right
partner. Someone with a big
name may not necessarily be
the best match. Finding the
right people means knowing
your own strengths and weak-
nesses. The partner can come
from other sectors. For exam-
ple, if you are a grassroots or-
ganization working to bring
solar panels to a community.
Your strength is that you have
access to the target market
while your weakness is that
you do not have the technolo-
gy. Your potential partner may
be a solar energy firm. In any
case, a successful partnership
needs to be mutually beneficial
to the partners involved.
Revenue Streams
The fundamental difference
between a social enterprise and
a non-profit organization is
that the former needs to main-
tain financial sustainability.
This means that it cannot rely
on donations or grants (except
for at the beginning phase) and
has to sell at some point. Ac-
cording to the social enterprise
certification standard in Hong
Kong, by the end of its 3rd year
of establishment, an organi-
zation with at least 50% of its
budget coming from revenues,
and at the same time is creating
measurable and direct social
impacts, will be considered a
qualified social enterprise.
Similar to charity, social en-
terprise put “the bottom of
the (wealth) pyramid (BOP)”
in the center of their mission.
Usually, it is much harder to
sell products or services to
this group and most probably
would require “reinventing”
the revenue model. For exam-
ple, instead of selling a prod-
uct, it may be better to rent it
because the BOP population
has limited cash flow. Instead
of transporting resources com-
ing from the outside to tar-
get communities, discovering
available resources and skills
within these communities may
be an option. However, it is
necessary to “sell” eventually.
This will not apply to all social
issues (like severe disease), but
it would be helpful to most of
them.
“Bottom of the (wealth) pyramid (BOP)” is the demographic group earning less than 2 USD a day.
Impact investing:
from “1” to “100”
If you have passed the start-
up phase mentioned above, you
now have a promising social en-
terprise with revenues. At this
point, you may find out that
compared to commercial activ-
ities, you are earning revenues a
bit slower and having difficulties
7
to scale up. A small amount
of grants or donations can no
longer meet your needs. This is
where impact investing comes
in.
still remains an emerging in-
dustry. Impact investments, as
defined by the Global Impact
Investing Network (GIIN), are
investments made into compa-
nies, organizations, and funds
The term “impact investing” with the intention to generate
dates back to 2008. Today, it social and environ