The paper describes the Czech environment of Social Entrepreneurship with the stress on the open communication, visibility and transparency. The research can bring more detailed insight to the Czech environment in the area of social enterprises.
The research sample consists of 128 social enterprises that were supported by the European Structural Funds in 2009 – 2013.
The aim of the research was to prove the open declaration of the supported organisations to the principles of social entrepreneurship. Second goal was to get to know the main motivation for establishment of a new social enterprise.
The social economy is still a new topic in the Czech Republic, though the fact that more than 200 declare themselves officially as social entrepreneurship. Social enterprises in the Czech Republic diverse by different legal forms (business, self-employed, cooperatives, non-profit organizations, religious society). They operate in different areas, and a large portion of them report characters that are defined in the framework of the project ECSEM EMES European Research Society.
The reason for establishing the social enterprise is mainly the motivation of the entrepreneur, a non-profit civil or religious organizations or groups of citizens. The initiative comes from the bottom. The second motive is the possibility of using the European Structural Funds. In the last programming period, in particular, the social enterprises used the challenge associated with the European Social Fund that was re-distributed through the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs. In the current programming period up to the year 2020, the applicants have more options. The establishment and development of social enterprises are financially supported by the European Fund for Regional Development. This Fund also supports the social entrepreneurship as a part of integrated projects CLLD (Community-Led Local Development). The European Structural Funds so financially support the launching and development of not only integrated social enterprises but at the same time strengthening the regional growth using local action groups.
In the article the authors describe the current status of social enterprises in the Czech Republic supported by the European Structural Funds.
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4. Financing issues for social enterprises, philanthropy and social finance
