Investigation into Funding Strategies of Social Enterprises

Abstract

It has been attracting growing attention of all sectors of society to support social enterprises with social investment. This article focuses on the four much-discussed funding strategies of venture philanthropy, social impact investment, social impact bonds and crowdfunding. For the research, a total of 186 questionnaires were distributed and 92 of them were returned and found valid, with the rate of recovery standing at 49.5%. It is found that among the four strategies, the more heard of, the clearer, but that a strategy is clear does not mean it is readily accepted by the people; and among the companies with the registered name including the wording of social enterprise and those logging in as social enterprises, there is no significant statistical difference in the funding strategy. The result manifests the social enterprises in Taiwan are in the start-up stage, and goes in line with this article’s observation of the funding strategies, i.e., the funding strategy of the social enterprise has a lot to do with its life cycle. On this account, this article holds that we should pay attention to the life cycle of the social enterprises, adopt appropriate funding strategies based on their development stage and build sustainable business modes.