Motivations

Guest blog by Dr. Julia Fursova, Assistant Professor, Renaissance College, Interdisciplinary Leadership Studies Program, UNB

Starting a Social Enterprise (SE), like any business, is a risky endeavour. Leaving behind a steady 9 to 5 job often results in 24/7 commitment to make one’s idea a reality. Many founders pursue their social enterprise as a side project while still working full time. There are hours and hours of unpaid labour invested in building a business.

What motivates women and non-binary founders to start their initiatives? What is the driving factor behind the decision to make the first step toward putting an idea into action? What is that big ‘why’ that fuels their persistence and commitment? Such were the questions we asked in our conversations with the founders.

No one referenced exclusively ‘money’ or ‘making a living’. The answers explaining the main motivating factors had to do with an idea of starting something different, whether approaching a business with a different angle, or re-imagining a non-profit or charitable work.

Let’s dive deeper into the factors motivating founders to approach business venture with a different mindset or bringing a business venture perspective into a non-profit. Exploring SE founders’ motivations may provide a glance into how we could collectively forge a reality that approaches ‘business as usual’ with a ‘business with purpose’ lens.

Three key thematic categories emerged in response to questions about motivations:

• Responding to community needs and priorities
• Aligning paid work with personal values
• The role of lived experience.

These categories are not mutually exclusive and often are complementary, e.g., lived experience provides founders with better insights about how to respond to community needs, and responding to community needs allows them to align paid work with personal core values that are reflected in the social enterprise mission and vision.

Figure 1: Key Motivation Categories

‘Responding to community needs and priorities’ emerged as the most complex among the thematic categories under the umbrella of ‘Motivations’. The theme is compounded of the following sub-themes:

• Enhancing democratic processes
• Creating opportunities for education and training
• Community building efforts aimed at specific demographic and cultural groups.

Enhancing democratic processes includes the desire to bridge the distance and hold conversation between grassroots communities and decision-making; advocate for service accessibility, including lower cost or no fees and reducing the stigma around the service access; and create opportunities for dialogue and communication among diverse individual and communities.

Being a part of or identifying as an ally with a demographic or a cultural group is another key impetus for SE enterprise founders. SE founders are motivated by the desire to nurture community building efforts among youth, ‘creatives’, Indigenous communities, Black and Communities of Colour.

Figure 2: Responding to Community Needs and Priorities

Aligning Work with Core Personal Values

Some social enterprise (SE) founders felt disillusioned with working in corporate and non-profit sectors. They believed that neither environment allowed them to engage in work that truly aligned with their aspirations and core personal values—such as social justice, equity, inclusion, decolonization, and diversity.

Motivated by a desire to create meaningful, paid work for themselves and like-minded individuals, these founders envisioned a better world—one where empathy and care are considered common sense, and where people can live with dignity and peace.

By starting a social enterprise, they sought opportunities to bring together individuals who share their values to form teams or collectives. These collaborations aim to advance a shared vision, align skills with social purpose, foster a sense of fulfillment, and contribute to meaningful systems change.

Figure 3: Aligning work with core values

Lived Experience

The lived experiences of founders play an important role in sustaining their motivation. For those who are part of immigrant or Indigenous communities, or who have firsthand experience with food or housing insecurity or limited access to services, these experiences provide a unique perspective. This vantage point helps them approach social enterprise with a strong sense of purpose and a deep commitment to core values.

These lived experiences not only shape founders’ values and motivations but also directly influence the type of work they pursue—for example, the kinds of products or services their social enterprises offer.

Finally, personal factors such as life stage and career development—especially for founders in midlife—also contribute to the decision to start a social enterprise.

Figure 4: The Role of Lived Experience

Next Steps

Stay tuned for our next blogpost, where we focus on how SE founders hold the balance between purpose and profit!

Social Enterprise Research Team:

• Dr. Julia Fursova, Research Lead, School of Leadership Studies, UNB
• Ryca McCullough, BPhil., Data Collection
• Ellie Petersen, BPhil., Data Collection and Analysis
• Hillary Russell, BPhil., Knowledge Mobilization