Celebrating Social Enterprise Day 2024

For more than 40 years, Cwmpas has been working with Welsh Government and partners across Wales to support businesses which prioritise social good over private profit. 

We’ve worked closely with entrepreneurs who’ve put people and planet first. 

We’ve provided expert advice and support to social enterprises so they can create a fairer, greener economy and a more equal society. 

These innovative businesses align operational goals with social values. 

They plug gaps in local services. 

They solve social challenges. 

They inspire hope. 

They change lives. 

And they help grow the economy. 

Social enterprises tackle social issues where they matter most – at community level. 

They confront global threats like climate change, homelessness, energy and food poverty, social isolation, and declining mental health. They use their business and financial acumen to build locally-owned, profitable businesses, which drive positive change and redistribute wealth back into the community. 

They grow the economy from the bottom up. 

They create jobs, raise a profitable income, drive commerce across a network of local suppliers, buyers, partners and customers – and improve the lives of their employees by providing rewarding employment, a secure income, and the wherewithal to live their lives, do business with other local businesses, and help grow the economy. 

Money circulates. Wellbeing improves. The community re-generates and starts to thrive. The economy grows.  

Growth in income leads to growth in social impact. As social enterprises secure more business, they become more profitable. They expand their services, support more people, create more jobs.  

The speed and trajectory of growth increases, and communities benefit in every possible way through thriving high streets, busy town centres, diversity, opportunity and equality. 

More jobs in the local area. More money in pockets. More social issues tackled. More services provided by local people, for local people. More goods produced locally. More money staying within the community.  

Happier, more hopeful communities. 

For the last 40 years, our support has seen an exponential growth in the number of social enterprises at the heart of their communities, quietly driving growth in the Welsh economy. 

Social enterprises deliver meaningful services and products. They create original solutions to age-old problems. They inspire communities, provide new opportunities, and grow the economy. 

Today on Social Enterprise Day 2024, we’re celebrating these fantastic social enterprises and entrepreneurs who are making a difference to communities right across Wales. 

Welsh social enterprises are leading the way, fixing everyday social challenges, and inspiring change for the better.  

They are helping to create a thriving economy and improving the lives of people and communities.  

Here at Cwmpas, we congratulate Wales’s social entrepreneurs and the staff who run these superpower businesses. 

You are supporting your communities, reducing loneliness and isolation, addressing climate change and minimising food poverty, providing jobs and training and regenerating communities, all while delivering profitable businesses and boosting the local economy. 

We look forward to standing shoulder to shoulder with you for the next 40 years. 

With the right support, across Wales and the UK, social enterprises will take economic growth and social value even further.