Social Enterprise

Founded in 1970, Resources for Human Development serves people who are homeless, mentally ill, developmentally disabled, and drug addicted. The group, which has a budget of $165 million and operates in 11 states, increasingly engages in social enterprise to raise revenue and meet service needs. Read more about Resources for Human Development...

Founded in 1994, WREN is a nonprofit organization dedicated to better lives and livelihoods for rural women and men. To support their small business support program, the group operates a number of social enterprises including an artisan retail store, an art gallery, an on-line store and a quarterly magazine. These enterprises both help support the nonprofit's operations and, importantly, help to market the goods made by many of the small businesses that the nonprofit supports. Read more about Women's Rural Entrepreneurship Network (WREN)...

Founded in 1984 by a recovering alcoholic, Rebuild Resources owns and operates two social enterprises that provide transitional employment for men and women who want to become sober and self sufficient. One business produces custom apparel (such as event t-shirts); the other does light manufacturing. To date, more than nine hundred men and women have graduated from the program. Rebuild estimates a success rate of sixty-eight percent and a social return of nearly half a million dollars per successful graduate. Read more about Rebuild Resources...

Founded in 1951, PHC operates a number of businesses, including janitorial services, a manufacturing business, and others that employ a total of 1,100 people with disabilities and provide the organization with 96% of its operating budget. Read more about PHC Northwest...

Founded in 1981 to provide social services to at-risk youth, New Door Ventures (formerly Golden Gate Community, Inc.) began its social enterprise operations in 1990 as a means to provide job training and jobs to the at-risk population it serves. The nonprofit currently operates a bike shop (Pedal Revolution) and a print shop (Ashbury Images). During the period between 1998 and 2005, New Doors employed a total of more than 200 at-risk youth and young adults. Its social enterprises raise roughly $4 million or roughly 80 percent of its $5 million budget. Read more about New Door Ventures...

National Industries for the Blind (NIB) enhances the opportunities for economic and personal independence of persons who are blind, primarily through creating, sustaining and improving employment. The group employs almost 5,000 people who are blind per year, pays over 60 million dollars per year in wages and benefits for full- and part-time employees, offers rehabilitative services to about 125,000 children and adults, and delivers millions of dollars worth of products and services to federal, state and commercial markets per year. Read more about National Industries for the Blind...

Manchester Bidwell operates a range of programs designed to create empowering educational environments for adults-in-transition as well as urban and at-risk youth.  The nonprofit’s educational model includes three core components:  1) youth arts programming; 2) adult career training; and 3) social enterprise.  Current social enterprises include MCG Jazz, which preserves, promotes and presents jazz music through live concerts, archival recordings and educational programming; and The Drew Mathieson Center for Horticultural and Agricultural Technology, which trains people in green industries and generates revenue through the sale of orchids and other specialty crops.  Founded in 1968, Manchester Bidwell’s annual revenues now exceed $3.3 million, less than $600,000 of which comes from contributions and grants.  To help other communities replicate the model, it launched a subsidiary, the National Center for Arts and Technology (NCAT), which now supports eight operational affiliates outside of Pittsburgh.

Founded in 1995, ITN provides door-to-door, on-demand rides for seniors, aiming to preserve senior mobility while avoiding the stigma of vanpool services. The organization charges an average fee of $8 per ride. Seniors may pay cash, have family members or others pay on their behalf, or donate time or cars for ride credit. The group supplements the cash with the labor of volunteer drivers. Earned income provides about 58 percent of revenues, with donated funds covering the balance. In 2005 the group provided 15,250 trips, using four donated cars, and served 600 riders. Read more about Independent Transportation Network...

Founded in 1982, Greyston has grown to employ and provide job training to 55 people, most of whom had previously been chronically unemployed. The bakery currently generates $3.5 million in annual sales. Clients for its brownies, cakes, and baked goods include Ben and Jerry's and many upscale New York specialty stores. Read more about Greyston Bakery...