Social Innovation Exchange

Governance

Ownership structures then bring with them important dynamics that may help or hinder the organisation in realising its mission. The best forms of ownership and governance reinforce relational capital, creating a source of resilience for when the enterprise goes through difficult times.

Boards

Boards are one of the key design features of any organisation. As instruments of governance of social ventures, they have a dysfunctional history. They represent a...

Boards for innovation

Some design features of boards can actively promote innovation. In principle user and beneficiary representation on management boards can serve as a channel for new ideas...

Membership involvement

Membership involvement can be token and cosmetic or a significant source of engagement and capital. Most businesses see AGMs as an annoying necessity where small shareholders...

Stakeholder governance

There are a number of ways in which core stakeholders can be incorporated in the structure of an organisation and its processes. These include the constitution,...

Open guides

The social sector has started to develop more comprehensive guides to help ventures make decisions about governance models and organisational forms. These can be used at...

Consumer shareholding

Consumer shareholding can be used to involve consumers more directly in the work of a venture, both directly, and through representation on the Board. This was...

Gold standards and Golden shares

Social businesses like Cafédirect have adopted a detailed Gold Standard to provide a constitutional anchor to the company’s social character, and have a separate company of...