The Finnish government is in the process of reforming the way of organising employment and welfare services. The focus of social enterprise development has been on work-integration and welfare services provision. However, social entrepreneurial activities are diversifying and finding new grounds.

Similar to many other countries, during the last century, Finland developed a rather large public sector, providing among other things, social welfare and employment services to its citizens. These services were mainly provided by the public sector, only leaving a complementary role to private sector. However, during the last decade, there has been a rapid shift towards an increasing number of welfare and employment services being provided by private for-profit and non-profit actors.

The Finnish government is also in the process of reforming the way of organising publicly funded employment and welfare services, and have shown interest towards social enterprise solutions. Developments in this area have taken place, within a socio-economic and political context dominated by the economic crisis and the pressure to find ways to reform and upgrade general interest services and develop sustainable work-integration solutions for disadvantaged groups.

The purpose of the Finnish Social Enterprise mark is to help social enterprises to distinguish themselves from other businesses and demonstrate that the enterprise applies the Finnish Social Enterprise business model.

• A working group was established by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment in 2010 to explore the need to develop a business model and legislation for social enterprises in Finland.
• The Finnish Social Enterprise Mark was launched in December 2011. The Mark is granted and administered by the Association for Finnish Work. Established 100 years ago, the association is a politically independent non-profit organisation, which raises most of its revenues from membership fees.
• The Social Enterprise Mark is a stakeholder-driven label without legal regulation. Based on extensive consultations with the relevant stakeholders, the criteria for the Social Enterprise Mark were drawn up and published at the end of 2011. The mark of certification is awarded to social entrepreneurs “if they promote well-being, limit their distribution profits and offer transparency of their business operations.” (after: Peer Country Comments Paper – Finland by Harri Kostilainen). To be eligible for the label, the organisation should meet the following three primary criteria:
  • The primary purpose and objective of the social enterprise is to contribute to social good. The social enterprise is engaged in responsible business activities.
  • Restricted distribution of profits. The social enterprise uses most of its profits to contribute to social good in accordance with its business idea, either by developing its own operations or donating the profits in accordance with its mission.
  • Openness and transparency of business activities.
• In addition to the above-mentioned key characteristics, a social enterprise must meet one or more of the following secondary criteria:
  • Participation and influence of employees in the enterprise’s decision making, including employee ownership.
  • Measuring of social effectiveness and the generated social impact.
  • Employment of persons with a weak position in the labour market.
  • Adoption of innovative service and operational models within the organisation’s field of work. The Social Enterprise Committee makes further enquiries where necessary