Social enterprises are social mission driven organizations which trade in goods or services for a social purpose. Their aim to accomplish targets that are social and/or environmental as well as financial is often referred to as having a triple bottom line.

Social enterprises are income generating ventures set up to tackle a social or environmental need. Many commercial businesses would consider themselves to have social objectives, but social enterprises are distinctive because their social or environmental purpose is central to what they do.

Rather than maximising shareholder value, their main aim is to generate profit to further their social and environmental goals. Therefore some commentators describe them as 'not-for-profit' as their profits are not (at least primarily) distributed to financial investors. Others dislike the term as it suggests they have an unbusinesslike attitude. An ingenious solution to this quandary is to call them for 'more-than-profit' (a term used at the Social Enterprise Institute Conference, Heriot-Watt University, in 2003).

Source: Wikipedia