Chris Allwood: Should Social Enterprises be Paid to be Social?

It seems a strange question, but lots of social enterprises sell something to customers who have little interest in the social outputs created by the business.   Auction My Stuff is a prime example - very few of our customers buy because of who we are (they might check our feedback to make sure the gizmo they bought will turn up, but that's about it).  Should we be paid by the public purse for the social benefits we provide?

Obviously it's attractive to have another income stream, but would it divert our attention from building a successful business?  Also who would evaluate the social benefit?

One idea I’m toying with is for local authorities not to commission any community or regeneration work, but tender for specific social change.  That way anyone, charity, social enterprise or business could bid to provide that change.  They would be paid on the basis of the amount of change they could create.  You’ve still got the evaluation problem, but it’s always seemed strange to me that any funder of social change wants the charity or social enterprise to do the evaluation, rather than do it themselves or get an independent third party in on it.

I’d be interested to know your thoughts and ideas.