In France, 10 to 15% of the GDP is generated by social employment. (Source: Ashoka)
Nearly 80% of social entrepreneurs are copied. (Source: Ashoka)
72% of all social entrepreneurs state that raising funds is their biggest challenge.

Social entrepreneurship is a recent notion that emerged in the nineties on both sides of the Atlantic:
In the USA, notably with the "Social Enterprise Initiative", launched in 1993 by Harvard Business School and followed by other major universities (Columbia, Yale, etc.); also with various foundations who develop training and support programmes for social entrepreneurs and social enterprises.
Source: translated from Institut pour le développement de l’information économique et sociale (IDIES)
The social entrepreneur is an individual whose primary goal is not profit-making but creating social value, capable at the same time of seizing and optimising the opportunities s/he encounters, of gathering the necessary resources to drive her/his local project, and of finding innovative solutions to the social problems in her/his community that remain unaddressed by the current system. This will lead her/him to adopt an entrepreneurial behaviour within the framework of traditional management practices.
Sources: translated from "Définition de l'entreprenariat social: Revue de la Littérature selon les Critères Géographique et Thématique" Sophie Bacq & Professor Frank Janssen
Social entrepreneurs bring forth economic projects in the collective interest and/or for promoting a social aim. They reconcile economic efficiency and social utility, private initiative and solidarity: fighting against exclusion, creating or preserving quality jobs, economic enhancement of an area, guaranteeing a fair income for producers, building social bonds, etc.
Quite often, these two dimensions are combined with a third foal of participatory governance: involvement of stakeholders, limited returns on capital, profits reinvested into the project.
Thus in social entrepreneurship, profit-making does not constitute an end in itself, but a means to serve a community project.
The concept of social economy was born in the 19th century from a concern to reinstate Man at the core of the economy.
Social economy enterprises belong to a wide range of business sectors and are characterized by a special legal status, including cooperatives, mutual societies, non-profit associations or foundations, and by common principles of free membership, democratic governance (one person/one vote), special profit distribution, primacy of man over capital, accountability, solidarity, etc.
Source: translated from Finansol glossary http://www.finansol.org/UPLOAD/article/pages/55_article.php
“Solidarity economy” has emerged gradually over the last few decades of the 20th century, spurred by a desire to return to one of the founding principles of social economy, namely solidarity. Similarly to social economy, solidarity economy therefore also relies on a concern to reinstate Man at the core of the economy, while however stressing the mitigation of social inequalities, and being defined more in terms of the nature of its projects rather than by legal status.
Source: translated from Finansol glossary http://www.finansol.org/UPLOAD/article/pages/54_article.php
The still evolving term of “solidarity economy” is an English translation of a concept represented by the French “économie solidaire” and similar terms in several other languages. As such it is sometimes translated by other expressions such as "solidarity-based economy".
The solidarity economy is often considered part of the social economy, what might be termed the “social and solidarity economy” (from the French “économie sociale et solidaire”). The concepts are still under development and the difference between the two terms is gradually being clarified. An organisation seeing itself as part of the solidarity economy generally goes beyond achieving purely social aims: it aims to put right an injustice by expressing solidarity.
Source: quoted from Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solidarity_economy
Social and professional integration of underprivileged persons is designed to help them gain their rightful place within society. It further provides an opportunity for socially isolated, financially deprived or professionally disadvantaged people to be reinstated in a situation of exchanges with their environment, by fostering their return to employment in particular.
Created over twenty years ago, work-based integration entities were born of the desire to help people encountering difficulties in accessing or returning to employment.
Numerous types of entities exist today in France: Work-based Integration Enterprises (WIE), Temp Work-based Integration Enterprises (TWIE), Intermediary Associations (IA), integration job sites or workshops (work/school projects) and neighbourhood outreach centres.
Main branch of microfinance consisting in extending very small loans to people lacking access to other forms of traditional financing.
Initially created in poor countries to foster socioeconomic development by encouraging the creation of micro-businesses, microcredit now exists in developed countries as well, where it can help provide a solution to the problem of banking exclusion.
Source: translated from Finansol http://www.finansol.org/UPLOAD/article/pages/47_article.php