social enterprise business model canvas

A new Social Business Model Canvas online

Welcome to the new social business model canvas, a digital collaborative template on mural. the sbmc on mural allows you to work with your team to easily map out your social mission and social business building blocks to maximize your overall social impact goals..

This is picture of the Social Business Model Canvas.

Welcome to the New Social Business Model Canvas

The new Social Business Model Canvas (SBMC) online is based on Strategyzer’s original Business Model Canvas and consists of 14 boxes. The boxes range from understanding the complex systems in which your social issue exists to understanding the needs of the communities experiencing those issues, planning out your social mission and social value proposition offerings to beneficiaries, customers, and key funders, and identifying the building blocks for your sustainable business that puts achieving the social mission as the central goal.

Below you will find some additional support resources, such as short readings, links, videos, and pdf files of the blank SBMC, and a mock-up SBMC example that you can download. If you’d like to discuss the SBMC or have someone walk you through it, you will find contact details at the bottom of this page. We want to hear from you!

Access the Social Business Model Canvas on MURAL – instructions

The button below will take you to the app.MURAL.co website to access the Social Business Model Canvas. To collaborate with others using the template, you will be asked to create a free trial (no credit card details required). If you are working in an educational institution and have a .edu email address or are a nonprofit organization, you can request to use MURAL for free by applying for the education plan or checking your nonprofit eligibility .

Pre-Work: Systems Thinking & Impact Gap Analysis

To be most effective with your business, we recommend you complete some pre-work before you start filling out the Social Business Model Canvas. This includes doing an impact gap analysis and understanding systems thinking. Click on the button below to get started.

How to fill out the Social Business Model Canvas

There are 14 boxes on the Social Business Model Canvas. Each box is discussed below with some additional information and open-sourced online resources to get you started.

Key Stakeholders

Key Stakeholders are those people and organizations that closely interact with your social enterprise.

Social Impact Measurement Strategy

Why do you do what you do? How will you know when you have achieved it? For Social Entrepreneurs, it’s important that these two questions are asked regularly.

Key Delivery Partners

In this section, you should focus on those key delivery partners that you will need to help you either deliver your social programs, or products or services.

Competition / Coopetition

Competitors are those other organizations who are offering similar programs, products, or services to you, to either of your segment groups.

social programs, social business’ products & services, fundraising, etc.

Estimate the costs associated with key activities and resource requirements for the social business, to get an overview of costs.

Social Mission

Write your Social Mission statement in less than 8 words, stating the group(s) you will serve, the action(s) you will take, and the change(s) you want to see happen.

How will you deliver your social value propositions/interventions to your Beneficiaries and Customers? Depending on your offering, you may need to think about developing mechanisms, or channels, that cater to your beneficiaries and customers.

What are the critical activities that you need to do, for your social programs, social products, and services, in order to achieve your social mission?

Macro-Environment / PESTEL

Just as with commercial business, social enterprises need to be aware of changes that are going on around them in the macro-environment.

reinvestment, donations, etc.

Deciding how you will redistribute any surplus profits you generate in one of the cornerstone goals of social business.

Social Value Proposition

What Social Value Proposition will you offer for your Beneficiaries, Consumers/Customers, and primary funding stakeholders?

Relationships

What mechanisms will you use to build and maintain relationships with your Beneficiaries, Consumers/Customers, and Funding Stakeholders?

What key resources will you need to be able to deliver your social programs, products, and services successfully?

funding, grants, donations, awards & tradable income, etc.

Typically, social businesses have multiple sources of income to ensure the viability of the enterprise.

Social Business Model Canvas Template & Example

Access the PDF version of the Social Business Model Canvas, as well as a completed Canvas for an example social enterprise named “Need, Bake, Serve Café” (11.17.2020).

NOTE: This example is not based on a real social business. Any similarities are unintentional. Download to desktop if you wish to zoom in/read the file in detail.

Social Business Model Canvas

Build & Design , Tools and Methods

Business Model Framework

Submit a Comment Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

Social business model canvas template

Plan your business for social impact.

The new Social Business Model Canvas online allows you to work with your team to map out easily and plan your social mission and social business building blocks to maximize your overall social impact goals.

The Social Business Model Canvas (SBMC) is based on Strategyzer’s original Business Model Canvas and consists of 15 boxes. The SBMC boxes range from understanding the complex systems in which your social issue exists, understanding the needs of the communities experiencing those issues, and then planning out your social mission and social value propositions. The SBMC allows you to identify the action steps you need to plan for your sustainable business, helping you keep the social mission at the center of your organization’s goal.

How to create a Social business model canvas template

This template was designed by Denise Crossan, Eugene Lang Visiting Professor for Issues of Social Change. Previously Dr. Crossan was an Assistant Professor in Social Entrepreneurship at Trinity College Dublin’s Business School, and she remains an Adjunct Visiting Professor for TCD.

Learn more about the Social Business Model Canvas and the Social Innovation Lab @ the Lang Center .

Social Innovation Lab :: Swarthmore College

Get started with this template right now.

Social business model canvas template frequently asked questions

Template by Denise Crossan

Dr. Denise Crossan, Eugene Lang Visiting Professor, Social Innovation Lab at the Lang Center, Swarthmore College PA, specializing in social impact education.

Mural is the only platform that offers both a shared workspace and training on the LUMA System™, a practical way to collaborate that anyone can learn and apply.

More Education templates

Learning experience canvas

Storyboard the student journey

Team breakout

An introductory guide to the Social Business Model Canvas

Learn how to correctly use the tool and how to avoid most common mistakes. the social business model canvas template and few practical example are provided inside, download the free guide.

Please fill all the required * fields.

What's behind this work?

The social business model canvas is a visual tool developed to design and describe business models of social enterprises. this guide contains content, best practices and learnings gathered in 5+ years of experience using this tool with dozens of socially-oriented, impact-driven organizations. whether you are student or a practitioner, get your free copy today and learn how to correctly use the canvas. inside, you will also find the plain template as well as examples taken from two world-class social enterprises: aravind eye care system and proximity designs. just in case you're wondering: yes, the guide is absolutely free just keep us in mind next time you need help or support with your social entrepreneurial project :), what will you learn, understand what the canvas is all about, you will understand what is the main purpose of the social business model canvas and how teams can use it, comprehend what to insert in each block, section by section, you will comprehend what how to fill it in correctly, learn most common mistakes to avoid, you will learn common pitfalls and errors teams encounter when using the tool, download the template and real-life case studies, the plain template of the social business model canvas is provided, as well as examples from successful social enterprises, get the free guide now.

The Social Enterprise Model Canvas

The Social Enterprise Model Canvas is a tool used to visualise all the building blocks of starting a social enterprise, including customers, route to market, value proposition, and finance.

At the heart of the Canvas is the Value Proposition – the central pillar around which all the other elements revolves. It is the reason why your social enterprise exists and provides the guiding direction for all aspects of your core behaviours and activities. Nailing the Value Proposition is vital to the overall success of any social enterprise.

Forget about a 40-50-page business plan document. The key principle of the Canvas is to concentrate on quality rather than quantity. It is a living document that should be tested and re-worked over time. At any point it is purely a set of hypotheses that need to be tested and validated with actual customers/beneficiaries

The beauty of the Canvas is that it creates a common reference and language that can be used to articulate, share and thereby gain feedback on your social enterprise’s model. It provides a straight-forward yet transparent reference that can be used internally across teams, as well as externally with advisors, investors and partners.

The Canvas is designed to guide your thinking through each of the building blocks of your social enterprise’s business model – how the functions, activities and processes interlink and interlock. It gets you to think in a more systematic and formal way, ensuring that each area is effectively covered to produce a more comprehensive and considered picture of your social enterprise.

This Canvas is inspired by the Business Model and Social Business Model Canvas and is available as a FREE download!

By entering your email you agree to receive email communications from Social Change Central. Your details will not be shared. Every email will include an opt-out provision allowing you to immediately stop receiving any future promotional communications.

Jay Boolkin

[email protected]

I'm passionate about positive social change and the power of social entrepreneurship to tackle some of the world’s biggest problems. I believe that for-purpose business models can become part of the mainstream and I am enthusiastic about advocating for business models that are genuinely built around a social or environmental mission.

Join as a member to get unlimited access

Already a Member? Log in here

Don't have an account?

Subscribe to Social Change Central

No spam. It's a promise.

Have an account?

Password reset link will be sent to your email

Social Entrepreneurship

Social Enterprise Business Model Canvas

Share on Facebook

A successful business is all about finding the right product-market fit, effective leadership and well-crafted strategy. To craft the most effective strategy, it first, important to understand the key relationships among the various aspects of the business so that an entrepreneur can visualise the whole business as a model which is precise and easy to understand. Rather than writing pile of papers containing a business plan, which is not only tedious but redundant at some stage, it is far more effective to plot a Business Model Canvas as the modern strategist and experts believe.

Perhaps the most widely used tool has recently gained popularity is Business Model Canvas . Coined by Alexander Osterwalder based on his book – ‘Business Model Ontology’ – this model outlines several key aspects which form the building blocks of both new and existing businesses to focus on operational as well as strategic management and marketing plan. The best part about the Business Model Canvas is that, it could be applied to every type of businesses – lean startup, large commercial enterprise or social enterprise. While there are hundreds to iterations of the Business Model Canvas, we have revisited the Business Model Canvas to see how it can be applied to craft a social enterprise business model.

A social enterprise is a business venture which is inherently driven by social mission. The social entrepreneurs aim to tackle various social problems by innovating novel solutions and make an impact in the society through the creation of a sustainable business model. Social enterprises can serve either as for-profit or as a non-profit. The Business Model Canvas can be used for both types of social enterprises –

Social problem – A problem which is causing disequilibrium in the society.
Network – Reference groups/peer-support network who are willing to join the cause.
Core value offerings – The value proposition that aims to eradicate the social problem addressed.
Impact – A set of matrices to measure the progress of the value offered.
Cost – Sources of expenditure, capital cost, operational cost.
Revenue – Sources of earnings which will keep the venture sustainable.
Beneficiaries – The target group/vulnerable segment who will be benefited.
Service Portfolio – A list of services/actions/programs that are aimed to deliver the core value.
Channel- Media through which the services will be provided, i.e. online, off-line.

About Post Author

Related posts:, average rating, leave a reply cancel reply.

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Learn with thousands of learners from HotCubator Academy

Click here to explore our courses on Udemy.

You have Successfully Subscribed!

Social Business Model Canvas

Published by Net4SocialImpact Support on February 21, 2021 February 21, 2021

The Social Business Model Canvas is a tool for creating a solid business model around your social enterprise. It’s also a collaborative tool that helps you communicate different business models with your stakeholders and brainstorm new ones.

The original Business Model Canvas has been altered in various ways by experts. These alterations reflect the fact that a social enterprise is a business venture, which is inherently driven by social mission.

In the case of a social enterprise, the business model should be understood as the analysis of the rationale, infrastructure, capabilities and use of resources that enable stakeholders to create value – economic and social – for themselves and for the organization.

These various templates are designed in order to help their users to overcome some of the challenges faced by social enterprises. These are:

• Strategy Challenge arising from tensions and conflicts created by the parallel pursuit of economic and social goals; • Legitimacy Challenge arising from the hybridity of social enterprises, which limits the possibility that stakeholders have to use using familiar categories for shaping their expectations regarding the behaviour of social enterprises; • Mission Measurement Paradox that arises from the practice diffused among managers of social enterprises of using growth measures instead of adequate measurements of social impact; • Governance Challenge that refers to the task of designing systems and processes concerned with direction, control and accountability that are the most adequate for the pursuit of mission and objectives.

Further sources: https://sehub.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/Social%20Business%20Model%20Canvas_1.pdf https://socialenterpriseinstitute.co/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Social-Business-Model-Canvas.pdf

Net4SocialImpact Support

Please reach out to us if you have any questions about this website.

Inspiration

Wettbewerb: social entrepreneurs gesucht: wer will mit corporates zusammenarbeiten.

Im Rahmen des Projektes “CE-RESPONSIBLE” suchen wir 10 Social Entrepreneurs, die eine innovative Idee haben, wie sie mit etablierten Unternehmen (Corporates) zusammen arbeiten wollen. Wir werden die 10 Gewinner*innen mit einem Video-, Social-Media und PR-Paket Read more…

Runder Tisch Social Entrepreneurship am 8. März und am 21. März 2022

“Runder Tisch Social Entrepreneurship” – Die Rahmenbedingungen für Social Entrepreneurship in Deutschland“ 8. & 21 März 2022, 10.00-11.00 Uhr, via Webex Registrierung: Bitte das folgende Formular ausfüllen, wir senden die Webex-Zugangsdaten dann zu: Inhalt: Das Read more…

Uncategorized

#impact2021 – participant evaluation.

The organizers of #Impact2021 would like to thank you for your attendance. We would appreciate if you could take 3 minutes to fill out the survey below. Your answers will remain confidential. We are not Read more…

Using the Business Model Canvas in a Social Entrepreneurial Context

Introduction.

In today’s rapidly evolving business landscape, entrepreneurs are increasingly recognizing the importance of incorporating social and environmental goals into their ventures. Social entrepreneurship, a growing field that focuses on creating sustainable solutions to societal problems, requires a unique approach to business planning — the Business Model Canvas.

Since we here at SteepConsult are supportive of social entrepreneurs everywhere, we decided to put our heads together and use our own experience in this field to see what knowledge we could share with all current and prospective social entrepreneurs who are out there looking for knowledge to improve their chances at success.

Today, we shall be writing about a tool that is very useful for any social entrepreneur who wants to launch a new initiative or find ways to explain their social enterprise in a straightforward and striking visual manner to lay people.

This tool has already gained widespread popularity in a normal for-profit context, as it is an extremely effective representation of business ontology. We are talking of course about the popular Business Model Canvas (BMC).

This particular tool is so popular because it allows entrepreneurs to effectively summarize their business and present it in a visually appealing manner to people without much understanding of their specific business. This is important because as another popular fake Einstein quote – as we did to introduce you to the concept of what is a VRIO analysis – so aptly states:

“’If you can’t explain it to a six-year-old, you don’t understand it yourself” 1 Most probably not Einstein

While the veracity of this claim is something you should take with more than a grain of salt, it does reflect an important tenet of human psychology. People will not invest in you, nor will they buy your product or else be interested in working with or for you if you cannot clearly explain to them what your business is all about.

To help clarify your business idea and ensure that you are able to pitch it properly to third parties, the BMC is an ideal tool to help you focus. Important to know for social entrepreneurs in particular is that the BMC that is used in a social entrepreneurial setting does however sport a few slight differences to the classic format designed by Alexander Osterwalder and Yves Pigneur in 2005. We shall highlight these in the sections to come and show you how to make proper use of the differences.

This article will study the application of the BMC in a social entrepreneurial context, highlight its benefits and provide practical insights for professionals in this space who are aiming to create impactful ventures.

Understanding the Business Model Canvas

The Business Model Canvas, developed by Alexander Osterwalder and Yves Pigneur, is a strategic management tool that helps entrepreneurs visually depict and analyse the key components of their business model. It consists of the following nine building blocks, each of which we have clarified with a small explanation:

Customer Segments

You can not be everything to everyone. The key to success is focus. By zooming in on the nexus of unique pain points, demographics, buyer behaviour, and other relevant characteristics, you should be able to segment your potential audience and identify those segments where the chance of success is the greatest.

Value proposition

As with the customer segments, your value proposition should also focus on the key decision-making features in your industry. On these key features, you should be able to define why your product or service is better than its competitors (e.g., it’s cheaper, more user-friendly, higher in quality, more robust, more sustainable, etc.).

Which distribution channels are you going to use to bring your product/service to your customers. This can be a network of brick-and-mortar locations, a webstore, social media, etc.

Customer Relationships

This aspect of the BMC is focussed on the interaction with customers and is highly contingent on the exact type of business you are.

Revenue streams

In this aspect of the BMC, an entrepreneur is asked to detail how their business is going to make money. This seems a rather straightforward question at first glance, but it can soon start to become quite complex. A prime example on this front is Amazon.

If we simplify Amazon’s business model, it is a web shop and it makes its money through the buying and selling of goods. However, Amazon generates massive reams of data due to the popularity of its product. This data is also monetized through online advertisement options that are fed by the data it gathers on its customers.

On top of that, to host all the data produced by their web platform, Amazon became an early investor in cloud computing which led to the rise of AWS, which monetizes the expertise Amazon has built in cloud computing.

Key Activities

Here, we have to return to our value proposition and ask how we plan to achieve it. It is in other words a question of toolkits. Will you offer superior service by hiring more people? Will you offer cheaper services by investing heavily in automation?

Key resources

This section lists every resource that enables you to organize your key activities and thus make good on your value proposition. This could be staff members with specific expertise, IP, brand value, material assets such as factories, capital, etc.

Key Partnerships

This section of the BMC lists those stakeholders (e.g., your suppliers, customers, mentors, trade associations, etc.) which might enable you to succeed.

Cost structure

This section should be completed with an overview of all the key cost drivers, as well as try to categorize them (fixed v. variable, emphasis on capital or labour expenditures, etc.).

Filling the business model canvas

Below we have included a rather valuable schematic overview of the various aspects of the BMC. We like this view primarily because it does a great job in mapping the dynamism of this framework:

A common mistake when completing out the BMC is that not enough attention is paid to the interplay between the nine key components. It is however a fact that you cannot really look at one part of the BMC in isolation if you truly want to fulfil its promise. The sign of mastery lies in the fact that you can explain how the cost structures allows you to hire/maintain key resources, which allow you to organize your key activities and thus deliver on your value proposition.

While we will see in just a bit that the BMC is preferably filled out from right to left, which allows you to move from the questions that are most visible to your clients to the back-end processes which support it, once it is completed you should be able to jump from one section of the BMC to the other and see the logical connections in between the different areas.

As mentioned before, the BMC was initially designed for traditional businesses. However, its adaptability and flexibility make it highly relevant for social entrepreneurs as well. Naturally, the structural set up of a traditional BMC is completely geared towards the ontological components of a traditional for-profit business structure and all the peculiarities that this entails.

As we shall examine in the next chapter, the traditional BMC structure has been slightly tweaked at various points to capture the reality as experienced by social entrepreneurial ventures.

Adapting the Business Model Canvas for Social Entrepreneurship

When applying the BMC to a social entrepreneurial context, certain modifications and considerations are necessary. Let’s explore how each building block can be approached in the context of social entrepreneurship:

In the social entrepreneurship realm, the “customer segments” portion of the BMC becomes a little bit more complicated. For these types of ventures, a split is often introduced between clients on the one hand and beneficiaries on the other hand (although not always).

This split is particularly necessary in cases of cross-financing, where a service or product is sold to for-profit customers to finance the service or product offered to beneficiaries. Roughly speaking, we might say that the beneficiaries are the reason for the social project, while the clients are more impacted by the core entrepreneurial drive.

In any case, identifying the needs, preferences, and challenges of both beneficiaries and targets is crucial to create a relevant value proposition.

Value proposition of offer

Social entrepreneurs must articulate their unique value proposition, which addresses both social and economic or traditional benefits. We prefer to describe this as the “Offer” to differentiate it from the more limited scope of a value proposition in the for-profit BMC. To bring a good “Offer” description to the table, you need to identify the social problem that your venture addresses, the solution being offered, and the value it creates for beneficiaries, partners, and funders.

Effective communication and distribution channels are also vital for social entrepreneurs. They need to consider the most appropriate methods to reach their target audience, ensuring the delivery of their products, services, or interventions effectively.

In social entrepreneurship, building strong relationships with beneficiaries, partners, and stakeholders is fundamental. This often requires a deep understanding of community dynamics and an empathetic approach to foster trust and collaboration.

Revenue Streams

Generating revenue is a crucial aspect of any sustainable venture. Social entrepreneurs need to consider diverse revenue models that align with their mission, such as impact investments, grants, cross-subsidization, or earned income strategies.

Key activities

Social entrepreneurs engage in a range of activities to create social impact. This includes research, product or service development, community engagement, advocacy, and policy work. Identifying and prioritizing key activities is essential for efficient resource allocation.

Key Resources

In addition to financial and human resources, social entrepreneurs must consider the intellectual, social, and natural resources required to deliver their intended impact. Leveraging partnerships, volunteer networks, and shared resources can enhance their operational capacity.

Collaboration is often vital for social entrepreneurs, who often work with diverse stakeholders, such as non-profits, governments, corporations, and community organizations. Forming strategic alliances can broaden the reach, expertise, and impact of a social enterprise.

Analysing the cost structure helps social entrepreneurs ensure financial sustainability. They must consider direct costs, overheads, and investments required to deliver their impact while maintaining a balance between social objectives and economic viability.

Benefits of Using the Business Model Canvas for Social Entrepreneurs

The adoption of the BMC by social entrepreneurs offers several advantages, we have already introduced a few of these in our introduction, but we shall quickly reiterate all the arguments in favour of using the BMC below:

Visual Clarity:

The BMC provides a clear and visual overview of the entire business model. This allows social entrepreneurs to:

Identify potential gaps, synergies, and areas for improvement.
Pitch their business in convincing and authoritative manner to customers, investors, and other potential partners

Iterative Approach:

The BMC allows for easy experimentation and iteration, enabling social entrepreneurs to refine their model over time. As a living document, it is great to expose to successive generations of employees/partners/beneficiaries/other stakeholders so that it can be constantly refined. In this manner, the BMC is a low-effort way of engaging in Open Innovation (on which we have quite coincidentally written the definitive guide, available here).

Applying the Business Model Canvas to a real-life Use Case

As we here at SteepConsult like to get our hands dirty, we thought it would be a good idea to put our knowledge into practice and apply the social entrepreneurial BMC to a social venture that we ourselves greatly admire for its results.

Aravind Eye Care System is a pioneering healthcare organization in India that focuses on providing high-quality, affordable eye care services. Founded by Dr. G. Venkataswamy in 1976, Aravind Eye Care System aims to eliminate needless blindness by making eye care accessible to all sections of society, particularly the underprivileged.

Aravind’s innovative approach includes a unique cross-subsidy model, where revenue from paying patients is utilized to offer free or subsidized services to those who cannot afford them. This model enables the organization to reach a diverse range of patients and ensure that quality eye care is available to all, regardless of their socio-economic background.

With this model, Aravind has been able to expand tremendously. Not only has it performed about 7.8 million operations over the course of its operations, but its impact has also expanded from its original Indian heartlands to countries all over the developing world due to its training programmes and manufacturing prowess (with a focus on creating low-cost and affordable eye care tools for Low-and Middle-Income countries around the world).

We have completed a BMC for Aravind Eye Care System and included it here for teaching purposes below. We have tried to make it as simple as possible, using post-it like visuals as a call back to the way it is ideally filled in during a collective exercise with an experienced facilitator like those, we have at SteepConsult. The logos are there to make it visually a bit more striking and the arrows are there for the benefit of the reader to showcase the relationship between the various aspects of the BMC:

Now let us go through this BMC example in a step-by-step approach. As mentioned earlier, when starting from an empty canvas, it is generally recommended to begin with the client-facing parts of the BMC first.

We would recommend beginning with the ‘Offer’ first, as your value proposition is what drives everything else in your project. As stated before, in a social entrepreneurial venture, the question of the offer is rather more complicated than in a normal for-profit context in the sense that you can have both a traditional and a social offer.

In case of Aravind, the division is relatively uncomplicated, since it offers the same type of services (i.e., high-quality eye care) to both its paying clients and its subsidized beneficiaries. The difference is that the former have to pay market rates for the therapies they consume, while the beneficiaries are helped at rates that are far below standard market prices. Note that such an uncomplicated division is not necessarily the standard.

It is perfectly possible for a social enterprise to offer one type of service or product to paying clients and do something completely different to help its beneficiaries. The benefits of the Aravind approach, however, are quite attractive since offering the same service/product in the traditional and social offer allows you to realize economies of scale that would not be present otherwise.

In the case of Aravind in particular, this is vital as a lot of eye surgery is (perhaps somewhat counter-intuitively) rather sensitive to scale. Thus, Aravind’s surgeons get a lot of practice from working on their poor patients, which ups the standard of care they can offer to their paying customers. Since the quality of their offering is higher, Aravind’s paying customers are prepared to lay out greater sums for their treatment at Aravind’s facilities. Thus, the paying patients cross-subsidize Aravind’s offer to its beneficiaries.

On top of that, further savings are achieved by combining the two patient flows, lowering the costs per treatment. Due to the lower cost per treatment, Aravind’s profit margins on its paying customers are higher and the expenses for offering treatments to poor beneficiaries are lowered. The interplay between all these various advantages thus creates a virtuous circle that benefits everyone serviced by Aravind.

Customer Segment

Our explanation of the Offer above already does quite a bit to explain the customer segmentation in place at Aravind. Like with the Offer, there is a division between the clients (i.e., the same group of people who would be present in a for-profit BMC) and the beneficiaries (i.e., the newly introduced group of people who benefit from the ‘social’ side of the project).

In this section, we shall therefore just restrict ourselves to adding a bit more context. For starters, we wrote in our previous section that eye care surgeries lend themselves to scale quite well. This is primarily visible in the high number of people Aravind treats for avoidable blindness. The most common cause of which are age-related cataracts. Since blindness has such a tremendous impact on the daily life of patients in developing countries (e.g., by preventing them to work or take care of their families, despite being otherwise healthy), it is hugely cost-effective to prevent/cure any cases of blindness that are as easy to fix as cataracts. Since this old age disease affects both the rich and the poor similarly, it is easy to go and hunt for the economies of scale Aravind’s model requires.

As to paying clients, here we would like to stress the fact that people who could afford this type of treatment in the past would often have to go abroad to seek treatment. Despite the fact that for many of these richer patients, the additional expense this caused was not necessarily a dealbreaker, the benefits of finding proper care close to home are self-evident. It is therefore easy to see why richer patients would have a strong incentive to make use of Aravind’s local services.

Customer relationships

On the relationship front, there is relatively little difference between the traditional and social offer at Aravind. As this is a medical relationship in both cases, it is important that interactions with beneficiaries/clients are professional.

As we shall see in the next section of distribution channels, Aravind has also built out an expansive infrastructure of primary care facilities. These focus on preventative treatments and aftercare for the people who had to undergo a surgical intervention. To ensure that people come in regularly, it is important for Aravind’s staff members to strive for a personal and close relationship with both groups serviced by themselves.

Distribution channels

To facilitate the type of care that is necessary to fulfil its mission, Aravind has to be present in close proximity to the final users. That is why they have built an extensive network of over a hundred primary eye care treatment centres embedded in local communities and these centres in turn serve as a funnel to bring the patients who need surgery to the network of 14 hospitals which Aravind has set up to bring this type of capital-intensive surgery to the masses it serves.

Key Activities

As to Aravind’s key activities, we can also be rather brief. The original idea that animated Aravind was to bring affordable eye care to the masses. In the beginning, its sole focus was on carrying out the actual treatments.

Once they had optimized their model and were able to benefit from the economies of scale we have described in our section on their Offer, Aravind started to have room to broaden its scope. It has thus started innovation activities in the broader field of eye care surgery with a focus on reducing costs.

If you are interested in more information on expanding your core offering with exploratory activities which can over time become new drivers of business, feel free to reach out to SteepConsult. Our consultants are specialized in the use of StrategyTools diagrams, which allow for a structured and efficient estimation of future business opportunities. [To be added in a box, with a link to information on ST, to be checked with Quentin if there is already something on StrategyTools available on our website]

This has led to training programmes to spread knowledge on the one hand, and innovation about the cost-effectiveness of eye care surgery equipment and treatment on the other hand. Since most of the leading providers of this type of equipment/medicine/treatment focus on western markets were the need to be cost-effective is less pronounced, Aravind’s focus on affordability has allowed it to emerge as one of the few providers of (relatively) low-cost treatment options, broadening its positive impact to include most of the developing world.

The know-how that as a result of these activities has accrued to Aravind has furthermore strengthened their position, as it has allowed them to recoup the costs of its innovations by bringing them to an even wider audience than the one Aravind traditionally services in India alone.

Key Resources

On Aravind’s key resources, we can again be brief. The biggest advantage it currently has is its scale, this has allowed it to build up deep know-how through the employment of skilled staff. This has allowed it to further improve its brand profile and has led to a virtuous circle of partnerships.

Partner Network

Aravind, as a successful social venture of considerable scale, has over the years been able to set up wide-ranging partnerships with various international organisations, multi-national enterprises, and government agencies (see logos on the BMC for some examples).

A successful social enterprise can be an attractive partner for all three groups, since association with the social venture will lend a halo-effect to the organisations it partners with. A particular strength of an organization that is as big as Aravind is that it can be a more logical counterpart for the colossal type of organizations like the UN or a company like Google who seek to use some of their resources for the benefit of all. For these organizations, a social venture that is of a sufficient scale has a gravitational pull all of its own as it unburdens for example Google from having to keep track of many different ventures individually.

Revenue Streams

From the partner networks, we seamlessly flow into the revenue streams. In the case of Aravind, it is very clearly an example of hybrid financing. Hybrid financing means that the organisations is not dependent on donations and grants only.

Aravind does receive some financial supports from its wide partner network (explaining the red arrow that runs from partner networks to revenue streams), but most of the income comes from two other sources, namely its core service offering and its ancillary services.

The income from its core activities is the revenue generated by Aravind’s core offering to its paying clients. The income from ancillary services is all the income they derive from their training programmes, R&D activities and the manufacturing of core surgical tools, medicine and other equipment needed to provide high-quality eye care and surgery.

Cost Structure

The cost structure of Aravind is relatively uncomplicated. It primarily boils down to three major blocks. First, there are the costs related to staffing. To maintain a large and expansive network, Aravind needs good employees (mostly highly trained doctors and nurses). This of course requires competitive salaries and other benefits, which given the size of the workforce does amount to a pretty number.

Secondly, there are the costs related to maintaining its facilities. Both the primary eye care centres and the hospitals are expensive to maintain, so that also soaks up a lot of costs. Finally, there are all the costs associated to the ancillary activities of Aravind. Production facilities and the development of courses all require expenditure and together this is the third block of the cost structure.

Conclusion

In the realm of social entrepreneurship, where the pursuit of social and environmental impact is paramount, the Business Model Canvas (BMC) serves as a valuable tool for planning and strategizing. By adapting the BMC to suit the unique needs of social entrepreneurs, professionals in this field can effectively design and execute ventures that address pressing societal challenges.

Furthermore, the BMC’s visual nature offers a clear and concise representation of the entire business model, allowing social entrepreneurs to identify areas for improvement, innovation, and collaboration.

By utilizing the BMC, social entrepreneurs can effectively communicate their ideas, attract stakeholders, secure funding, and measure their progress towards achieving their social mission. Moreover, the canvas facilitates strategic decision-making, resource allocation, and the identification of key partnerships necessary for maximizing impact.

It is important to note that the BMC is not a static tool but a dynamic one that should be revisited and adapted as the social enterprise evolves. Social entrepreneurs must remain agile, open to feedback, and willing to iterate their business models to stay relevant and effective in the future.

After having amassed a wealth of experience in Innovation & Change Management, Arjan joined SteepConsult to support our transition towards an innovative, solution-oriented, and sustainable future. As our in-house intellectual, he enjoys sharing his knowledge with customers and colleagues alike.

Reference List

Hoos, F. (2017). Social Entrepreneurship and Changemaking: From Traditional to Social Entrepreneurial Business Model Development [Course Presentation]. Innovation Management & Entrepreneurship University Certificate, HEC Paris.

Marbaise, M. (2017). The Business Model Canvas Let Your Business Thrive with this Simple Model . AA 50Minutes.

Orgler, M. (2021, May 18). How to Fill in the Business Model Canvas? – Business to the Moon – Medium. Medium . Retrieved from https://medium.com/business-to-the-moon/how-to-fill-in-the-business-model-canvas-590e200a13da

Manage your cookies preferences

How to Master the Business Model Canvas for Social Entrepreneurs

To succeed, you need to understand how your business creates, delivers and captures value..

With the wave of the Lean Startup Method, the business model canvas has become a regular in our startup vocabulary. You’ve maybe even tossed the term around yourself, but what does it actually mean and how do you actually implement it?

Originally crowdsourced, the book “Business Model Generation” by Alexander Osterwalder and Yves Pigneur at Strategyzer has sold over one million copies in 30 languages. The canvas allows you to frame a hypotheses which you then test with customers until you get to the point in the validation process where you have enough to go on to build a minimum viable product. In simple terms, a good and conclusive canvas lays the groundwork for your business and changes with every iteration you go through. It describes how you create, deliver and capture value.

The aim of this article is not to reinvent the wheel or summarize the extensive literature on the topic. It is a guide covering the basics and hopefully sparking your interest with lots of extra reading to dive into the deep end of the business model canvas pool for social entrepreneurs.

The Why and the How

Now I realize the term ‘business model’ has a corporate ring to it - not a language that the social sector historically has been friendly with, let alone fond of. But if you think about it, creating, delivering and capturing value is precisely what social entrepreneurs do. Let’s face it, a business model - the engine for sustained earned revenue - is what any social entrepreneur needs if (s)he doesn’t want to be stuck in the endless cycle of writing grant proposals and worrying about next month’s payroll. Besides, approaching your social enterprise through the lens of a business-model seeker will put your venture on an entrepreneurial path of seeking beneficiary-centered solutions, validated by their willingness to pay for the product or service you provide.

The business model canvas is a business’ blueprint once you strip away all the fine-tuned details and impossible-to-make business predictions found in a traditional business plan. It sketches out what you are trying to do for whom and how you think it’s going to work. The original canvas is made up of nine blocks that easy to grasp..

Business Model Canvas for Social Entrepreneurs

The Business Model Canvas in 3 (Big) Steps

Creating Value

Start with customer segments specifying who your customer is and what his/her specific characteristics and circumstances are. What can you find out about their socio-economic situation? Their income? Their preferences, needs, behaviors, attitudes? You may be serving different segments of one population. Start with one.

As a social entrepreneur, you may have to segment customers from beneficiaries. The ones paying for your product or service are not always the ones using it exclusively (think Ruby Cup ’s one-for-one model). Consider both customer segments and develop personas for each.

The value proposition is the key to your business. Is the value you are creating - providing education to underserved communities or improving healthcare access - something that your beneficiaries appreciate as much as you think? The value proposition explains what problem you are solving for your beneficiaries and how. Figuring out whether or not your product or service meets customer needs may be my favorite part of the whole canvas exercise. If forces you to develop an in-depth understanding of customers needs, desires, and their reasons for not being able to overcome the issue themselves. The product or service you develop should address these factors to ensure you are meeting a real need under your beneficiaries’ limited condition. Use the Value Proposition Canvas to drill down on the specific details of what problem your customer is facing and how exactly you are addressing it. Getting this part right is crucial.

A social enterprise’s value proposition includes the value created for both the individual and society at large - the enterprise’s social impact. If your customers and beneficiaries are not identical, ensure it specifies how you create value for both.

Channels describe how you are going to deliver that value to your customers. Will you have your own storefront, partner with existing stores, or sell your goods and services online?

Depending on the beneficiaries you are trying to reach, you may have to get creative in reaching them. Identify channels that are easy - or at least possible - for them to access. Consider whether they are literate, use mobile technology, have reliable access to electricity or public transport. Access limitations are easily overlooked so consider these from the start.

Customer relationships outline how you interact with your customers. Are you offering personal assistance or will they be able to get their hands on your product through self-service? Will you offer service through community relations or will customers go through an automated system?

Trust and respect are key when working with underserved communities. Relationships with your customers should reflect this in every aspect of communications.

Delivering Value

Key resources are a breakdown of what inputs you will need to deliver your product or service. If you make a product, your key resources may include costly machinery and manufacturing facilities. If you are in the service industry, your key resources may be technology or some specific intellectual property. Think of them in terms of physical, human, intellectual, financial.

Speaking of activities: What is your main job to run this business successfully? Are you developing a technological solution? Are you selling fair-trade goods, training ex-convicts in job skills? These are your key activities . Make sure they all drive your intended social impact. It is easy to be overwhelmed with all the opportunities you can potentially pursue to make the world a better a place. Stick to your guns and focus on your KEY activities. For now. If you are successful with your first set, you can always expand. One step at a time.

Often, especially in the social sector, you rely on partners to make your solution work. Key partnerships highlight the relationships that are crucial to your business’ success.

As a social entrepreneur you pursue at least a double- if not triple-bottom line. This means you are - by definition - accountable to a wider spectrum of stakeholders. The best way to nurture and manage these relationships is by building partnerships with key stakeholders in sectors relevant to your venture. Who else is trying to solve the issue you are working on? Who are your allies? Especially if you work in emerging economies it is crucial to forge trust and strong relationships with partners in your value chain.

Capturing Value

How are you going to pay for all this? Revenue streams indicate how you make money. Ideally, you are selling your product to generate revenue. If that’s not an option, can you sell one version to customers who can afford it in order to subsidize sales to less affluent customers? Your revenue streams may be based on the direct sale of your product or service, a subscription fee, or renting, lending or leasing. Be creative. This also brings us back to customer segments and value proposition.

Every social entrepreneur I’ve worked with has heard this piece of advice early on: Don’t give your product away for free. Don’t make your beneficiaries dependent on free handouts, give them the dignity to pay for what you offer, even if it is a very small amount. We all appreciate the things we pay for more than for the ones we get for free. Charge SOMETHING for your product or service, and find other ways to generate revenue to at least break even. Is there a secondary customer base for your product or service? Can you partner with third parties to bring your product to market (development agencies, insurance companies)? Generating multiple revenue streams makes you less dependent and more resilient in case one stream dries up.

In order to define your price points for revenue streams, you need to have a very clear idea of your cost structure . Cheap airlines operate on a low-cost structure while your social business - hopefully - runs on a value-driven one, which may include high quality (think Cartier) and high ethical value. Ideally you manage to combine elements of both. Don’t sacrifice quality to save on cost. Think of your cost structure in terms of fix versus variable costs, and whether you capitalize on economies of scale (cost per unit decreases with more units produced) or scope (can you produce similar products or services while banking on shared machines, packaging, etc.?).

Depending on how you’re structured and what partnerships you have in place, consider whether you can outsource any costs to partners, and which elements you may be able to receive at a discount or through philanthropic giving. Which types of market capital do you have access to?

There are many (many!) variations on the business model canvas, specifically for social entrepreneurs and mission-driven businesses. I have used the Social Lean Canvas for teaching before, and I recently came across the Mission Model Canvas by Alexander Osterwalder. These are great resources and I highly recommend playing around with them to see which language works best for you. At the end of the day, you should be able to fill in any version of the canvas and arrive at the same conclusions.

The business model canvas is a great tool to help you sketch out your social enterprise idea. It evolves along with every round of testing and iteration your idea goes through - make sure to keep it up to date (post-its go along way!).

With that said, remember that it’s also only that. A tool. It does not focus on analyzing your competition, nor does it guide you in terms of marketing and communicating your product or service - all of which inform your strategy. The canvas captures the key factors of your potential business; it’s up to you to complement elements that are crucial to YOUR business’ success.

About the Author

Anika Horn has devoted her career to working social entrepreneurs from around the world building mission-driven businesses. As a mentor and coach at Social Ventures Australia, Social Impact Lab Hamburg and the DO School, Anika recently moved to the United States where she builds ecosystems for social entrepreneurs in mid-tier cities. On an international level, Anika researches best practices and common challenges in social enterprise support around the world. Her research is published under www.socialventurers.com .

Learn more about her work: www.anikahorn.com

This article was originally published in April 2016.

We are on a mission to deconstruct power and privilege in the sustainability and social justice sector.

Lifestyle and Wellbeing How to Create Resilient Teams
People A Mayor’s Fight for the Survival of His Town
Work Smarter The Road to Hell is Paved With Shitstorms
Lifestyle and Wellbeing Meet the Company Cleaning Up Space Trash Before It Gets Created
People This Entrepreneur is Ending Homelessness Through Coffee (and You Can, Too!)

Browse Canvas Database
Search for:

No products in the cart.

Social Business Model Canvas

PDF file format
Free Download
Immediate Access

Download Now!

To download Social Business Model Canvas today just enter your email address!

Description

The Social Business Model Canvas is a tool for creating a solid business model around your social enterprise . It’s also a collaborative tool that helps you communicate different business models with your stakeholders and brainstorm new ones according to Tandemic .

It helps you clearly identify who your beneficiary segments are, even if they aren’t paying you and there is no place for them in the regular business model canvas, to ensure that you have laid out a compelling rationale that will drive your customers to buy without forgetting about your impact on society and develop clear thinking around what kind of social impact you’re creating and how it could be measured.

BM ToolBox explains that the Social Business Model Canvas is inspired by the Business Model Canvas. Originally crowdsourced, the book “Business Model Generation” by Alexander Osterwalder and Yves Pigneur at Strategyzer has sold over one million copies in 30 languages.

The canvas allows you to frame a hypotheses which you then test with customers until you get to the point in the validation process where you have enough to go on to build a minimum viable product. In simple terms, a good and conclusive canvas lays the groundwork for your business and changes with every iteration you go through. It describes how you create, deliver and capture value.

The goal fo the social business model canvas is to support social innovators by designing their Business Models. Social Businesses focus on the impact they create for beneficiaries rather than creating profits. Therefore, the tool takes additional aspects into account which helps in creating a social business model.

The Social Business Model Canvas is divided into 13 building blocks. In comparison to the Business Model Canvas it takes the following aspects into account:

The component ”Segments“ is divided into “beneficiary” and “customer”. This supports the aspect that beneficiaries often do not pay anything but are crucial for the business model.
The Value Proposition consists of the elements “Social Value Proposition”, “Customer Value Proposition” and “Impact Measures”, which define how you control your social impact.
The type of intervention describes the type of product that will deliver the value.
Besides partners, the canvas includes the key stakeholders that are / should be involved in your program.
The component “Surplus” describes where you plan to invest your profits

To wrap it up, the digital hub TDB states that the term ‘business model’ has a corporate ring to it – not a language that the social sector historically has been friendly with, let alone fond of. But if you think about it, creating, delivering and capturing value is precisely what social entrepreneurs do.

Let’s face it, a business model – the engine for sustained earned revenue – is what any social entrepreneur needs if (s)he doesn’t want to be stuck in the endless cycle of writing grant proposals and worrying about next month’s payroll. Besides, approaching your social enterprise through the lens of a business-model seeker will put your venture on an entrepreneurial path of seeking beneficiary-centered solutions, validated by their willingness to pay for the product or service you provide.

And if you want to use the Social Business Model Canvas, The Social Enterprise Institute shows that you should bring your team together to discuss your ideas for the venture and how you see it working. Use the canvas template provided to structure your conversation and challenge your assumptions as you go along. How do you know that what you have written in each part of the canvas is true? What evidence would you need to test your assumptions? When completed, take stock and consider the whole picture. Explore the connections and trade-offs between each section. Is the overall picture plausible? Are there things that you need to revisit or think differently about?

Checkout other business canvases in our Canvas Database

Apple Highlights How Business Can Use Vision Pro

Apple today highlighted the Vision Pro headset's enterprise use-cases, such as customizable workspaces, collaboration on 3D designs, delivering specialized employee training, and guiding remote fieldwork.

Apple Vision Pro NVIDIA Omniverse Cloud APIs

The Vision Pro's high-resolution displays and processing capabilities allow for the creation and manipulation of digital twins of products, facilities, and processes with a high level of detail and accuracy. This has significant implications for industries like automotive engineering, where real-time data analysis and decision-making are crucial. Apple pointed out its partnership with Porsche to create the Porsche Race Engineer app as an example of this.

Training and simulation represent another area where the Vision Pro could make a substantial impact. By enabling realistic, immersive training experiences, companies like KLM Royal Dutch Airlines can improve technical maintenance and operations without the need for costly physical prototypes or taking equipment offline for training purposes. The Engine Shop app, for instance, allows KLM technicians to train on engine models in full fidelity within their own space, streamlining the training process and reducing the likelihood of errors. Similarly, Resolve's app for building engineers enhances the planning and execution of maintenance work by overlaying detailed schematics and 3D models onto the physical world.

To encourage the development and integration of the Vision Pro in business workflows, Apple has introduced a range of developer resources, including the Enterprise Spatial Design Lab, and partnerships with industry leaders like Deloitte and Porsche. See Apple's full press release for more information.

Get weekly top MacRumors stories in your inbox.

Top Rated Comments

Microsoft 365 apps have been optimized for the headset, providing users with a unique, distraction-free workspace that leverages the infinite canvas of spatial computing for multitasking and collaboration.

I’m surprised the “omg, the price needs to be lower” people haven’t ambushed this thread yet. Apple Vision Pro is not for some of you guys in a lower tax bracket. Leave it to us to fix the bugs and work out the kinks for your cheaper version in a few years.