About our new identity

Social Enterprise UK is the new name for the Social Enterprise Coalition. We have changed our name and will be rolling out a new visual identity and a new web platform over the next few weeks.

We believe we needed a new name and a new visual identity to better describe what we do and to better represent the social enterprise movement. The Social Enterprise Coalition was formed as a coalition of civil society organisations to use their collective voice to promote the idea and the use of social enterprise. They were very successful, and the UK now has a thriving, growing social enterprise movement and social enterprise is better understood. In fact, social enterprise has come into its own and the movement is gaining power, momentum and support. And ‘coalition’ no longer describes what we do - we have opened our doors to individual social enterprises of all sizes – start-ups and well-established businesses. We provide support, services, networks, tools, information and services to social enterprises. Our membership is growing fast. Our web traffic has doubled in the last year and we are inundated with enquiries and requests. More businesses want to support our mission, and we are welcoming them with open arms. We wanted a name and a visual identity that are simple enough to help us embed a common language for social enterprise in the UK while capturing all the things we do. Our new visual identity puts members first. Our new web platform will be a marketplace for the social enterprise movement.

Why Social Enterprise UK?

Because we are the national body for social enterprise in the UK. We believe that we no longer need to use any words other than social enterprise to describe what we’re here for and what we stand for. We are here for social enterprises and we stand for social enterprise.

Why the new visual identity?

SEC’s visual identity didn’t put across what we do and what we stand for. Social enterprise is a movement for people – and Social Enterprise UK only exists to work with and through its members. The new visual identity puts members right at the front. The idea is that wherever you see our logo – you’ll see a real member of Social Enterprise UK – they are the force behind social enterprise in the UK.

How did you decide what to call yourself and how to describe yourself and social enterprise?

By asking our members. We did research with our members (and did a few tests with members of the public who don’t know anything about social enterprise) to arrive at this name and identity.