Electronic copy available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1805770

THE SOCIAL ENTERPRISE. AN EMPIRICAL STUDY FOR ROMANIA

Prof. univ.dr. Lucica MATEI

Cristina SANDU, Ph. D. Candidate

National School of Political Studies and Public Administration Faculty of Public Administration

6 Povernei Street, 1st District, Bucharest lmatei@snspa.ro

sandu.cristina@hotmail.com

ABSTRACT

The social enterprise knows a dynamic of organization and functioning, under different legal forms, starting from NGO to enterprise, covering the domain of public services, functioning

independently or in public sector - private sector partnership. It plays a dominant role in the economic growth, in solving the social problems, in the process of knowing the needs for goods and public services with social impact on special groups. The aim of this paper is, starting from

the theoretical concepts of social enterprise experiences, to analyze the forms of social enterprises developed through the projects undertaken in Romania and the ways of using social

marketing in designing and developing these activities

KEY WORDS

social enterprise, segmentation, target groups, promotion, public-private partnership

INTRODUCTION

The social enterprise, more and more obvious in society, can be recognized by its mission in society, social objectives, the hybrid character (Nicholls, 2000) and the purpose of the actions with major impact on society. The social enterprise do not have a precise legal form, definitions tend to describe the functions of social enterprises. The functional approach seems to be appropriate analytical too, given the wide variety of legal forms in different countries covered by the concept (OECD, 1999).

One know American and European experiences which are different by the purpose of their activities inside the social enterprise, as the revenue generation vs. social benefit, the context of market economy vs. social economy, but also the legal regulations.

In Romania we also have experiences of social enterprise and the concept of social entrepreneurship is defined since 1850, but not even in the present times, there is not legal framework to develop the social enterprise activities, being mentioned only the concept of protected unit.

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Electronic copy available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1805770

Which is the role of the social marketing in the development of the social enterprises? The identified connections between the public services, the allocated budgets, providers, beneficiaries – target groups, the forms of promotion and advertising of the social, educational, cultural, environmental or sportive projects between people, but also the analysis of the projects dynamics in a certain time frame, all these demonstrate the efficiency of applying the social marketing methods in the development of the projects that satisfy the needs of the citizens, but also the importance of the public authorities-private sector-NGOs partnership.

We consider that the marketing approach of social enterprise lies also in the instrumentation of marketing segmentation, the marketing segmentation and the target groups sizing, the knowledge of needs, the communication with the target groups and the promotion of the social enterprise.

1. THE SOCIAL ENTERPRISE: DEFINITION, OBJECTIVES

The positioning of social enterprises makes them an effective instrument for combating social exclusion, a vehicle for social cohesion and a place of socialization. In addition to their social purpose, they emphasize production of goods and services and participation in the life of the enterprise by all its stakeholders- volunteers, employees, managers, users, representatives of public and private bodies- which is by no mean an easy task (OECD, 1999).

The social enterprise is the active part of the economic growth process, the promotion of the innovation, of supporting and creating new jobs, offering goods and services to the community, by creating the relationship between the provider (the social enterprise) – beneficiary (the community or the society as a hole) on the social market.

Key words for social enterprise (OECD, 1999):

different legal forms in different countries (co-operatives, associations, etc.); entrepreneurial organization of activities; profit not distributed, but re-invested to achieve the enterprise’s social goals; stakeholders rather than stockholders: democratic participation and organization of the enterprise; economic and social objectives; economic and social innovation; observance of market rules; economic viability; mixed financing, with a high degree of self-financing response to unmet community needs through the production of goods and services (traditional activities - community care services - and new activities to meet new social demands) labor –intensive activities. The social enterprises offer social services, with social objectives and they can be organized in different ways: centers for adults, kindergartens, social housing, training and placement centers, rehabilitation services, elderly care, ambulatory services for those with mental problems, alternative education for those rejected from schools, training centers private prisons, etc. (Nicholls, 2000).

“Social service programs” come to include poverty solution such as the following (Adato, Ahmed and Lund, 2005): social security systems for those working in the formal sector; services for school drop-outs and street children; workfare programs; maternal and child health services; assistance for the elderly and disabled.

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Social utility of social enterprises that focus on the integration of disadvantaged groups is relatively easy to identify. The entry or re-entry on labor market (paid or not) is both socially and economically beneficial to the community. Assisting the unemployed to employment enhances social cohesion and allows recipients to recover their economic independence after a period of retraining (OECD, 1999).

The production of goods and/or services by the social enterprise should, in itself, constitute (not only indirectly, through the income it generates) a support for the social mission. In other words, the nature of the economic activity must be connected to the social mission: if the mission of the social enterprise is to create jobs for low-qualified people, the economic activity itself supports the work integration goal; the mission of the social enterprise is to develop social services, while the economic activity is the delivery of these social services, and so on (Nyssens 2006).

A main objective of the social enterprise is the work integration and from this point of view we can talk about the Work Integration Social Enterprise, whose aim is to support the people that are facing the risk of permanent exclusion from the labor market.

The social enterprise or the social organization has as an objective the social problems solving in the society, a feature that makes it different from the commercial enterprise, which solves a business problem. The profit of social enterprise is a social profit, while the one of commercial enterprise is a financial, pecuniary profit. The practice of the social enterprise is that of promoting the social objectives, to offer services and goods in terms of efficiency and effectiveness.

Steier (2000) considers social enterprise as being designed of a hybrid model “consisting of the emergence of business, commercial and the social, the non-profit field”.

The social enterprise can have one or more owners that have control over the company while they are in charge of the company’s earnings, which are not distributed as dividends but reinvested it in the social cause (Austin, 2000).

Some social enterprise are very commercial while others give greater priority to social goals – and as a result are likely to be more marginal; some are strongly linked to promoting a specific target group and thus may have advocacy (for a community or an ethnic minority) as a (political) goal. This factor links with others, so that a more social (but marginal) WISE may have a more connected form of governance, and be more embedded in its environment (Spear and Bidet 2010).

The financial dimension of the social enterprise is characterized, on the one hand, by the capacity of attracting and creating finances, without profit, and on the other hand, by the capacity of being supported through philanthropic actions. In other words, the social enterprise is considered to have a hybrid character (Nicholls, 2000).

2. EXPERIENCES OF SOCIAL ENTERPRISE

a. The American experience

In the USA the concept of social enterprise remains an opened subject of debate with the main focus on the economic activities with social goals. In U.S. academic circles, social enterprise is understood to include those organizations that fall along a continuum from profit-oriented businesses engaged in socially beneficial activities (corporate philanthropies or corporate social responsibility) to dual-purpose businesses that mediate profit goals with social objectives (hybrids) to non-profit organizations engaged in mission-supporting commercial activity (social

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purpose organizations). For social purpose organizations, mission-supporting commercial activity may include only revenue generation that supports other programming in the non-profit or activities that simultaneously generate revenue and provide programming that meets mission goals such as sheltered workshops for the disabled (Young 2001; 2003a in Kerlin, 2006).

In practice, this fact means that the activity of the NGOs will be focused on the re-distribution of revenue between generations. Social enterprise engaged in by nonprofits may take on a number of different organizational forms including internal commercial ventures, for-profit and non-profit subsidiaries, and partnerships with business including cause-related marketing (Kerlin, 2006).

The main direction in present is the development and the emphasis of the social enterprise and social entrepreneurship concepts, thus the majority of the organizations with this type of profile will tend to guide their activities by social aims, even if they will face problems related to social exclusion specific to some vulnerable groups or to the lack of involvement of the public national or local authorities.

b. The European experience

From the European perspective, the social enterprise is considered to belong to the “social economy” (this concept is not mentioned in the American literature), with the priority of social benefits. Also the social enterprise concept implies the involvement of the beneficiaries in the ongoing activity performed, even in the decision-making process, by including some beneficiaries, employees, volunteers, etc. in the managerial activity.

Social enterprise is defined (OECD, 1998) as being “any private activity conducted in the public interest, organized with entrepreneurial strategy, but whose main purpose is not the maximization of profit but the attainment of certain economic and social goals, and which has the capacity for bringing innovative solutions to the problems of social exclusion and unemployment”, Kerlin (2006) considering that this definition is the most relevant for the European space.

Another perspective of social enterprise is the one of EMES (L’Emergence des Enterprises Sociale en Europe), by defining them as organizations with an explicit aim to benefit the community, initiated by a group of citizens and in which the material interest of capital investors is subject to limits. Social enterprises also place a high value on their autonomy and on economic risk-taking related to ongoing socio-economic activity (Nyssens, Adam and Johnson, 2006).

The social enterprise is characterized (Nyssens, Adam and Johnson, 2006) by the economic and entrepreneurial dimensions through:

a continuous activity, producing and selling goods and/or services; a high degree of autonomy; a significant level of economic risk; a minimum amount of paid work;

and also by the social dimensions through: an explicit aim to benefit the community; an initiative launched by a group of citizens; decision-making power not based on capital ownership; a participatory nature, which involves the various parties affected by the activity; limited profit distribution.

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c. Lessons to be learned

The International practice highlights the shaping of two “models” of social enterprise (Table 1), which in the Kerlin’s vision , from comparative perspective, each model has to learn one from the other starting with the organizational type, types of social enterprises, the involvement of social enterprise in society, in governmental activities and continuing with the types if concretizations (contractual) of activities, etc.

Table 1 :Comparative overview of social enterprise in the United States and Europe

USA EUROPE Emphasis Revenue Generation Social Benefit

Common Organizational Type Non-profit (501(c)(3)) Association/Cooperative Focus All Non-profit Activities Human Services Types of Social Enterprise Many Few

Recipient Involvement Limited Common Strategic Development Foundations Government/EU University Research Business and Social Science Social Science Context Market Economy Social Economy Legal Framework Lacking Underdeveloped but Improving

Source: Kerlin (2006) Tabel 1 p. 259

3. CASE STUDY: EXPERIENCES OF SOCIAL ENTERPRISE IN ROMANIA

(1)The legal framework

In Romania, we can talk about the social entrepreneurship since 1850, with the foundation of the Houses for Storage and Borrowing, subsequently the adoption of the Law no. 21/1924 (Official Gazette, 1st Section, no. 27, February 6th 1924) for the legal persons (Associations and Foundations) and the Law 448/2066 (the Official Gazette, 1st Section, no. 1006, December 18th

2006) for protecting and promoting the rights of persons with disabilities, which provides a legal framework for the protected unit.

The Law 448/2006 defines in article 48 the concept of social inclusion as being the multidimensional set of measures and actions in domains of social protection, employment, habitation, education, health, information and communication, mobility, security, justice and culture, with the aim of combating the social exclusion. The articles 78 and 79 describe the right of the persons with handicaps to have all the conditions to choose and practice a profession and the forms of employment for the person with handicap (on the free labor market, home, in protected units). We can notice the concept of protected form of employment, by referring to the protected place of work or to the protected authorized unit.

The Government’s Order No. 1372/2002 offers the framework for the modalities and the conditions to authorize the functioning of the protected units, to have at least 30%, from the total of employees, persons with handicap, and the goods and services to be the result of those persons’ activity.

(2) Current experiences

What the legal framework demonstrates is the fact that in present there is not legal regulation for the concept of social enterprise, only for the protected unit, with the role of creating work

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integration possibilities for persons in needs, obtaining incomes from the production and selling of the goods and services.

Even so, the concept of social enterprise exists in Romania, the Romanian Ministry of Labor, Family and Social Protection elaborated a project for social economy named “Social Economy: Innovative Model to promote the active social inclusion for persons in need”, with the will in the future to represent a legal framework for the organization and the functioning of the social enterprise in Romania.

More than that, Romania is in the list where the NESSTE (Non-Profit Enterprise and Self Sustainability Team Europe) works since 2007, organizing competitions for social enterprises, in 2007 and 2009.

In Romania there are successful models of social enterprises, such as the ones for promoting and protecting the rights of child and offering the support of families in need, the ones of offering services for mothers in risk situations, in workshops of producing toys or producing books and CDs for schools, the ones of offering support for people with visual disabilities, but also the ones offering support for young people with AIDS.

In the last years (especially starting with 2007), many NGOs and private actors showed their desire to be involved in the social economy domain, developing projects in the educational, social, cultural, environmental, sportive services for the community, with the aim of responding to their social needs.

(3) Analysis

This paper uses the empirical and bibliographic research in this domain, statistical analysis and specialized reports.

The area of research is represented by 122 projects in 5 domains of public services- social, educational, environmental, cultural, sports. The time frame: 2000-2010 The allocated budget includes value between 5.000 -90.000 Euros. Partnership – public authorities – private sector- NGOs (PA-PS-NGOs) The target groups – are represented by different categories of vulnerable persons or collectivities, framed in the public services mentioned From the point of view of the public services and their role of satisfying the needs of the citizens, we considered useful and important to analyze the behavior of the stakeholders – public authorities, NGOs, private actors, consumers, in providing and ensuring the public services, through their involvement in projects with the target of disadvantaged categories in the Romanian society. What happened in the last years, it was the process of awareness in the line of citizens, of the governmental actors, civil society, mass media, but also in the line of private sector, about the need and importance of developing activities in the social economy domain.

Segmentation

(3)1. Types of projects

The projects implemented for the provision of the public services by the public authorities, NGOs and private actors were developed in domains (Table 2) such as education (31 projects), culture (8 projects), environment (42 projects), social services (55 projects), sports (4 projects).

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Table 2 Figure 1

What we can notice is the fact that the most projects were for the social services, the protection of environment and education.

(3)2. Types of providers

In the development and the implementation of the projects there were involved the local authorities, NGOs and actors of private sector. The most frequent partnership was public authorities - private sector - NGOs (Table 3), and only a few ones were undertaken without the support of the public or private sectors, the private sector representing a very important financier of these projects.

Table 3: The distribution of projects according to the type of partnership

domain Total

education culture environment social sport

partnership public authorities-private sector

13 2 5 10 1 31

public authorities-NGOs 1 - - 1 - 2

private sector-NGOs - - - 3 - 3

PA-PS-NGOs 17 6 19 41 3 86

Total 31 8 24 55 4 122

Almost 54% of the educational projects were undertaken by the partnership PA-PS-NGOs and almost 42% in partnership PA-PS.

75% of the cultural projects were undertaken by the PA-PS-NGOs partnership, the same situation with the environmental projects – 79% and the social and sportive ones – almost 75% each.

From a total of 122 projects, the partnership PA-PS-NGOs is present in more than 70% of cases.

(3)3. Types of beneficiaries

The target groups (Table 4) were identified as belonging of different categories of population:

children and disadvantaged children – orphans, children with autism, children victims of domestic violence;

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pupils, high school pupils, students, young people/specialized young people (through different programmes of specialization or awareness about some problems that the society faces);

disadvantaged young people – such as the ones with sensorial disabilities or the ones that are facing troubles to be integrated on the labor market;

women/mothers – women that are victims of domestic violence or suffer from breast cancer;

ill persons- such as diabetic persons or the invalid ones;

old people - by offering them the financial support or food;

drivers – to remind them the danger they can face on the roads;

architects – some problems related to the urban development in Romania;

population/ segment of population – in general about the problems related to the environment and social matters;

public institutions – kindergartens, schools, high schools, hospitals;

NGOs.

The majority of the projects had as target group the hall population, public institutions, NGOs, but also pupils and students.

domain Total education culture environment social sport target group

children 1 - 1 6 - 8

disadvantaged children 2 - - 4 1 7

pupils 10 - 1 - - 11

pupils-highschool 5 1 1 - - 7

students 10 - - - - 10

young people/young professionals

2 3 - 1 2 8

disadvantaged young people - - - 3 - 3

women/mothers - - - 9 - 9

ill persons - - - 1 1 2

old people - - - 2 - 2

drivers 1 - 1 - - 2

architects - 1 - - - 1

population/population segment

1 3 21 23 - 48

public institutions 5 - 3 2 - 10

NGO's - - - 10 - 10

Total 31 8 24 55 4 122

Table 4: target groups In education, almost 65% of the projects targeted pupils and students, projects such as “The Right to Read” or “START!BUSINESS”.

The cultural projects targeted almost 37,5% the young writers or musicians, such as the project “ Literary Debut Contest” and 37.5% the hall population, such as “Sonorous Festival”.

The environmental projects targeted almost 87.5% the hall population - “Green Areas”, “Our Forest”, “The Parks of the Future”.

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The projects for the social services had the aim of helping almost all categories of target groups, but the majority goes to the hall population, almost 42%, they tried to help population in need, in the cases of natural disasters or nearby the holidays, projects such as “Together for each” or “Together closer to the people”. Also a very important subject of the social projects was the category of women, 16,36%, projects with the aim of offering support for women suffering for breast cancer or victims of domestic violence, such as “The Campaign of Promises” or “The Campaign V-Days – Home you are not in prison”.

Regarding the sportive projects, the target group is represented by the persons with the passion of sports 50%, such as “Can I help? X promotes the young talents”, but also by the persons with invalidities or orphans, such as “The X Coup of Camp Tennis in wheelchair”.

(3)4. Forms of promotion and advertising

As forms of promotion and advertising, there were organized fairs and exhibitions, workshops and trainings, promoting the site or bloggers, distributing information and display banners, but the most important role was played by the media, which was present in all undertaken projects throughout television, radio, national / local newspapers (Table 5):

Table 5: Forms of promotion

advertising-promoting Total

mass-media fairs/exhibitions workshop/training website/blog banners/flyers domain 31 5 26 14 14 31 education

100.0% 16.1% 83.9% 45.2% 45.2%

8 5 4 6 7 8 culture

100.0% 62.5% 50.0% 75.0% 87.5%

24 6 16 12 20 24 environment

100.0% 25.0% 66.7% 50.0% 83.3%

55 12 35 19 44 55 social

100.0% 21.8% 63.6% 34.5% 80.0%

4 0 4 0 4 4

sport

100.0% .0% 100.0% .0% 100.0% Total 122 28 85 51 89 122

For educational projects it has been put great emphasis on the organization of workshops and trainings, especially for the training and qualification of the target group of each project.

For cultural projects, informational banners and brochures were considered very important in order to make the public aware of upcoming performances or festivals that are held by the authorities, in partnership with private actors and NGOs.

For social projects, there were used all the above mentioned categories, but the largest impact on the population, it was considered to be the media, along with the organization of workshops and trainings, and informational banners and brochures.

For sports projects, besides the media, the organization of contests and competitions and displays have been significant, for public’s accountability on issues regarding persons with disabilities.

Therefore, one can observe that the biggest impact in developing projects is the media which lead to meeting the needs of the community, followed by the impact of banner displays and full information, and organizing workshops and trainings.

During the development of the projects, only 10.7% have organized fundraising campaigns (Table 6), in education and social domains (particularly in projects aimed at certain times of crisis / disaster).

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29.5% of the projects envisaged granting prizes (money, books, toys, etc.), the most cases occurring in the education field (Table 7).

Frequency Percent Valid

Percent Valid no 86 70.5 70.5 yes 36 29.5 29.5 Total 122 100.0 100.0

Frequency Percent Valid Percent Valid no 109 89.3 89.3 yes 13 10.7 10.7 Total 122 100.0 100.0

Table 6: Fund-raising Table 7: Awards

(3)5. The dynamics of the projects

The analysis of these projects was made in a time frame between 2000-2010, as showed in the table 8, and the dynamics is represented through the graphic (Figure 2).

domain Total

education culture environment social sport start year

2000 - 1 - - - 1

2002 - - - 1 - 1

2003 1 1 - - - 2

2004 2 - 1 5 - 8

2005 6 1 2 12 - 21

2006 5 1 1 11 2 20

2007 6 2 10 10 - 28

2008 4 - 2 7 2 15

2009 4 1 3 6 - 14

2010 3 1 5 3 - 12

Total 31 8 24 55 4 122

Table 8: Time frame distribution Figure 2 The majority of the projects were developed between the years 2005-2007, education almost 55% and culture 50%, but also regarding the social services projects 60%. It is very interesting to notice that the majority of the environmental projects registered an increased number after 2007 (including 2007), more exactly 83% between 2007-2010, a period that is characterized by an intensified activity of bringing in the front line the environmental problems, such as pollution, the massive felling of forests, the drinking water and the radiation emitted the mobile phone.

The number of the projects began to decline significantly after 2007, which can be explained by the reduction of the allocated founds, starting with 2008 with the economic crises. From this point of view, the public authorities and the private sector turned to be incapable to face some problems of the citizens, but they tried to satisfy some needs related to the social and educational matters, aspect that we can notice from the number of projects developed during this period. Between 2008- 2010, there are 11 projects in education and 16 social projects (a total of 27 projects), which mean from a total of 41 projects in this period almost 66%.

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(3)6. The analysis of budgets allocated to projects

The budgets for the projects were identified as being from under 5.000 Euros to 5.000-10.000 Euros, thoughout >10.000-30.000 Euros, >30.000-50.000 Euros , >50.000-70.000 Euros, >70.000-90.000 Euros untill >90.000 Euros :

No. Projects/ domain Total education culture environment social sport budget 5.000-10.000 Euros 1 0 1 3 0 5 >10.000-30.000 Euros 4 3 1 9 1 18 >30.000-50.000 Euros 3 1 1 4 1 10 >50.000-70.000 Euros 2 0 2 4 0 8 >70.000-90.000 Euros 1 0 0 3 1 5 >90.000 Euros 4 2 4 15 0 25 <5.000 Euros 2 0 0 1 1 4 NA 14 2 15 16 0 47

Total 31 8 24 55 4 122

Table 9: Bugdets of projects What is a weakness of the analysis of project budgets is the lack of information about the budget for 47 projects, which means almost 38% from the total of projects.

Excluding the missing information projects, the analysis will focus on the difference of 75 projects. What we can notice from the table is the fact that the budgets are situated between the limits, 25 projects (33%) had a budget more than 90.000 Euros, and 18 projects (24%) a budget between >10.000-30.000 Euros, and 10 projects (13,3%) between >30.000-50.000 Euros.

(3)7. The analysis between the type of project-budget-project duration

The educational projects Excluding the 14 projects with Non-Answer, the analyses will focus on 17 projects, so we can notice that these 17 projects had a duration from 1-2 weeks to 2-3 years, with budgets between <50.000 Euros and >90.000 Euros. Cultural projects In a total of 8 cultural projects, 3 of them have Non-answer (regarding the budget or the duration), so these 3 projects had a duration from 6 months to 6 years, with budgets between >10.000-30.000 and >90.000 Euros. Environmental projects From a total of 24 projects in this domain, 16 had Non-answer regarding the budget or the duration. Thus, 8 projects reflect the following: duration from 2 months to 3 years, and budgets between 5.000-10.000 Euros and >90.000 Euros. Thus, we can notice that the projects with a duration of more than 6 months had a budget more than 50.000 Euros. Projects for social services Of the 55 projects, 18 have the N/A option as a response, which means that the analysis will focus on 37 projects, projects with a duration between 1 week and 3 years, with budgets from all categories. The above can show that a small term project and a long term project may have the same amount, according to social causes, such as a project that lasted a week, but had to be built 10 houses for the families of victims of natural disasters, had a budget of approximately 240,000 Euros (“10 houses in one week”) and a one-year project which aimed to help disadvantaged children, had a budget of 230,000 Euros (“Cluj has a soul ").

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Table 10: Correlations regarding the characterics of the projects

domain budget Total

5.000-10.000 >10.000-30.000 >30.000-50.000 >50.000-70.000 >70.000-90.000 >90.000 <5.000 NA

project duration 1 week-2 weeks - - - 1 - - - - 1 2 months - 1 1 1 - - - 4 7 3 months 1 1 - - 1 1 - 1 5 4 months - - - - - - - 1 1 6 months - - - - - - - 2 2 1 year - 2 2 - - 1 2 2 9 2 years - - - - - 1 - - 1 3 years - - - - - 1 - - 1 NA - - - - - - - 4 4

education

Total 1 4 3 2 1 4 2 14 31 project duration 1 week-2 weeks - - - 1 1 6 months 2 - - - 2 2 years - - - 1 1 3 years 1 - 1 - 2 NA - 1 - - 1 6 years - - 1 - 1

culture Total 3 1 2 2 8

project duration 1 week-2 weeks - - - - - 2 2 2 months 1 1 - - - - 2 4 months - - - - - 2 2 6 months - - 1 - - 1 2 1 year - - - 1 1 2 4 2 years - - - 1 - 1 2

3 years - - - - 1 1 2 NA - - - - 1 1 2 < 1 week - - - - - 3 3 3 weeks-4weeks - - - - - 1 1 7 months - - - - 1 1 2

environment

Total 1 1 1 2 4 15 24 project duration 1 week-2 weeks - 1 1 1 - 1 - - 4 2 months - 1 1 1 1 3 - - 7 3 months - - - - 1 1 - - 2 6 months 1 - 1 - - - - 1 3 1 year - 2 - 1 - 3 - 2 8 2 years - - - - - 3 - - 3 3 years - - - - 1 1 - 2 4 NA 1 1 - - - - - 2 4 < 1 week - 1 - - - - - 1 2 3 weeks-4weeks 1 2 - 1 - 1 1 5 11 5 months - - - - - 2 - - 2 8 months - 1 - - - - - - 1 9 months - - 1 - - - - - 1 unlimited - - - - - - - 3 3

social

Total 3 9 4 4 3 15 1 16 55 project duration 1 week-2 weeks - - 1 1 2 1 year 1 - - - 1 3 weeks-4weeks - 1 - - 1

sport Total 1 1 1 1 4

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Sports projects These projects were generally held for short periods of time. For example, two projects with a duration between 1-2 weeks with budgets <5.000 Euros, respectively > 70.000-90.000 Euros, a project between 3-4 weeks with a budget > 30.000-50.000 Euros and a one-year project budget > 10.000-30.000 Euros.

These aspects can show a large difference in allocating funds for projects of the same duration, or the fact that two projects of varying duration (substantial) may benefit from the same budget.

The information presented above demonstrates that there is not a direct proportionality between the project and the budget, what matters is the social cause that each project satisfies.

(3)8.Conclusions on the analysis The projects reviewed reflect national and local activities of the public authorities, of many NGOs and private actors (especially those in banking) in the last 10 years, and activities aimed at raising awareness of problems faced by certain categories of persons and providing help to them, and activities especially aimed at behavioral change among all citizens, trying “to pull the alarm” on many issues they do not know or do not want to know.

One can observe the information deficit at the level of budgets allocated to projects, which can become a suggestion/ proposal for those who administer these case studies.

The majority of NGOs and private actors are heading towards social public services, educational and environmental policies in particular and also the volunteer activity is very important to be mentioned, which is present in many of the cases examined (children, students, high school students, employees of companies involved local community members, etc.).

Social services are geared towards the professional integration of persons in difficulty (such as Social Enterprise Competition 2007-2008 and 2009-2010 editions of the draft CALL - 2004 - for training and professional integration of young people, especially women, disadvantaged people).

The population is represented by different vulnerable groups, and projects had, in general, as target group categories of children or disadvantaged children, students, young people, and certain categories of people who are in difficulty, such as women- victims of domestic violence or those suffering from breast cancer, elderly and victims of natural disasters.

It has been noted the importance of communication and promotional tools, regarding the impact of messages each advertising campaign had on communities, national and local authorities, but also on the potential (new) donors. Mass media (radio, TV, press) is the main means of communication and promotion for any project launched for educational, social, cultural, environmental purposes, and to protect and promote human rights and sport.

During the projects developed by public authorities, NGOs and private actors, there can also be organized fundraising campaigns or grant awards.

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What is very important to mention is that between the years 2005-2007, there had been shown a great interest in developing these projects whose target was to meet social needs, the situation had dramatically changed in the years 2008-2010, when the number of projects decreased from 69 projects (2005-2007) to 41 projects (2008-2010); the explanation is based on economic and financial considerations.

The efficiency of the provision and insurance of local public services, namely the social, educational, environmental, cultural and sporting events, depends primarily on how to organize public-private-NGOs partnership, because it determines the budget, on how the project is implemented, but also on the target group's ability to respond to signals from stakeholders, ability to react to that depends very much on the forms of promotion used in each project.

CONCLUSIONS

The diversity of approaches to social enterprise, with a distinct mention towards the American and European experiences that have been presented, emphasizes their economic and social dimensions.

As a global process, we are taking part to an expansion of initiatives regarding the solving of social problems throughout public enterprise, which responds to the social needs and offers the adequate framework of the promotion of social marketing.

Quantitative analysis of the Romanian practices in the field of social enterprise can demonstrate the role of social marketing in meeting the needs of the community and of vulnerable groups, but also the ability of public authorities (local/national), NGOs and private actors to contribute to the professional integration of disadvantaged groups and the behavioral change of populations, thus having an effect on increasing social responsibility.

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