Your Complete Guide to Social Enterprise in Scotland

Discover social enterprise

Read the full definition of social enterprise.

Buy Social Scotland – buy gifts and products from Scottish social enterprises.

Get free news updates about social enterprise projects and events in Scotland.

View live news 24/7 – direct from over 700 Scottish social enterprises.

Check out the most recent facts and figures from Social Enterprise in Scotland: Census 2019 (due to be updated soon).

Join Scotland’s Social Enterprise Community on Linkedin to discover and debate.

Read Scotland’s Social Enterprise Strategy 2016-2026 and the latest practical action plan.

Social enterprise and ethical shopping

Buy Social Scotland – buy gifts and products from Scottish social enterprises.

Social Supermarket – buy gifts and products from UK-wide social enterprises.

If you’re looking for a social enterprise supplier for catering, venue hire etc. see the P4P directory of social enterprise suppliers. Scottish social enterprises can join the register too.

Some Social Enterprise Networks (SENs) have directories of your local social enterprises.

Ethical Consumer magazine – advice and news to help with greener, ethical and sustainable shopping.

Also see: The Big Issue Shop, Ethical Superstore, The Ethical Shop

Jobs and volunteering

SEJobs for the latest job, board and volunteer vacancies in social enterprises (our social enterprise and start up members can place job adverts, volunteer or board vacancies for free).

GoodMoves and TBI Jobs – for social enterprise and third sector jobs.

Volunteer Scotland – for volunteering opportunities and your local volunteer centre.

EVH – supporting social employers

Education and training

Social Enterprise Academy – learning and development for people and organisations, social enterprise in schools and more.

Yunus Centre for Social Business and Health at Glasgow Caledonian University.

Interface – connecting businesses with academia.

Scotland’s Enterprising Schools programme.

The Scottish Institute for Enterprise – developing student entrepreneurship and social enterprise.

Young Enterprise Scotland – for school age and older.

Business support for social entrepreneurs

Access Just Enterprise – Scotland’s free, specialist business support for social enterprise. Includes start up support, funding, training, procurement and more.

Find a local or themed Social Enterprise Network (SEN) and local Third Sector Interface (TSI) for business support in your area.

Your local Business Gateway offers all general business support (plus specialist social enterprise support in some local areas). Also see Scottish Enterprise.

The Community Ownership Support Service (COSS) – to take over land or buildings for community benefit. Also helps local authorities and others with advice on transferring assets.

See latest live news direct from social enterprise business support and development organisations.

Co-operative Development Scotland and Co-operatives UK – support for co-operatives.

Evaluation Support Scotland (ESS) – measure and report on your impact.

Funding and social investment

Funding Scotland – all grants and funding information in one place.

Social Investment Scotland (SIS), Big Issue Invest and other social investors provide ethical finance for the benefit of people and planet.

View our live newsfeed of updates from social investors.

Community Shares Scotland – an innovative way to fund community enterprises.

Networking and trading

Get in contact with Social Enterprise Scotland for advice or information. We organise events to help our members learn, network and trade.

Social enterprises can join a local Social Enterprise Network (SEN) to connect with other social entrepreneurs, trade, learn and develop.

Join the Social Enterprise Scotland online forum Scotland’s Social Enterprise Community to discuss anything related to social enterprise or post information about an event or project.

Find your local Third Sector Interface (TSI) – single local forums of support for voluntary groups, charities and social enterprises.

Marketing and communications

Join Social Enterprise Scotland to get promoted on all our social media platforms and regular news bulletins – and get free marketing and media advice.

The Social Enterprise Weekly – our magazine exclusively for members.

Read all the latest live news from over 700 Scottish social enterprises – get in contact to be added to the newsfeed.

Read and share our media articles, blogs, Social Enterprise Spotlight and news releases.

Take a look at social enterprises in action on our Social Enterprise Scotland channel – members can get in contact to add their own films.

We organise the Social Enterprise Communications Group (SECG) for our members – for those working in communications, marketing and PR.

Advocacy, public policy and campaigning

Our members can use the collective influence of Social Enterprise Scotland for advocacy support. We’re here to intervene and represent you to local authorities, businesses and government and get action taken on the issues that matter. Join today.

Social Enterprise Scotland is the national policy and campaigning body for social enterprises. Members can get in contact to find out how to engage with and influence government and parliament and get your voice heard.

Read Scotland’s Social Enterprise Strategy 2016-2026 and the latest practical action plan, co-produced by sector bodies and The Scottish Government.

The Cross-Party Group (CPG) on Social Enterprise in The Scottish Parliament is Scotland’s national policy forum for social enterprise. Meetings are free to attend and open to anyone involved with social enterprise. Sign up for our free bulletin to get updates.

The Scottish Government Third Sector Division – responsible for social enterprise.

SELAG (Social Enterprise Local Authorities Group) – founded and hosted by Social Enterprise Scotland and local authority partners.

Economy and Fair Work Committee – The Scottish Parliament committee most relevant to social enterprise.

Media, blogs and books

Read and share our media articles, blogs, Social Enterprise Spotlight and news releases.

Third Force News – Scotland’s third sector magazine.

Read blogs from Social Enterprise UK.

Pioneers Post – the UK social enterprise magazine.

Scottish Business Insider magazine

Classic books like Social Enterprise in Anytown by John Pierce and The Social Entrepreneur by Andrew Mawson are now joined by a growing list of books on social enterprise.