Social Enterprise Approach

Social enterprise approach

Scale and sustainability are fundamentally important indicators of success for our programmes. However, achieving both with donor funding alone is not possible due to the fluctuating availability and size of donor funds. Therefore, DWN applies a social enterprise approach whenever possible, by selling services or products and reinvesting proceeds directly into the respective programmes. This allows to sustain growth and long term planning.
Sale of soap at DWN Sanitation Centre
House Construction
Early Childhood Development (ECD)

Housing for All

We develop residential land and sell it to low-income earners to address the housing crisis. We charge a fee for each residential plot that is sold, and the proceeds enable to sustain the growth of the programme.

Play for All

We develop, publish and sell children’s books. While copies are delivered free-of-charge to disadvantaged communities, we sell the same publications to the wider public. The income of those sales are reinvested in the early childhood development programme.

Sanitation

The sanitation programme is implemented through a nationwide network of community volunteers. In order to sustain that network, DW sources solar and sanitation related products that are then sold by the volunteers to provide them with a small income.

What is a social enterprise approach?

It means to conduct business with a specific social or environmental objective. It also means that while income must be generated, the social or environmental objective of the business is paramount. The social enterprise approach as used by DW organisations is on a not for profit basis: Any income generated is directly reinvested into the DW programmes.