Words and Intentions and Results

What is a Creative Community Enterprise (CCE)?

It is generally known what a nonprofit organization is in concept, and that outside of the United States, nonprofits are often called NGO's, or non-governmental organizations throughout the world.

However, in recent years, with heightened awareness of the opportunities businesses have become involved with in their communities, and concerning the environment and other global challenges, different terms have been widely communicated to try to describe these changes. "Socially responsible business" has been one such term, yet in our experience, it is can sometimes lack understanding as to specifics. Indeed, the Spring, 2007 issue of the Stanford Social Innovation Review further explores a specific, greater need for clarity. Even within this illuminating publication, across several interesting articles, there appear to be different interpretations of whether the terms such as "social" and "business" (or similar words) combined should be limited purely to income-generating spin-off enterprises of nonprofit organizations.

Compared with the article starting on page 28, "Social Entrepreneurship: The Case For Definition," which ultimately leads one to believe that, the article starting on page 64, "Secret Agents: Why Method Products Keep Their Eco-friendliness Under Very Attractive Wraps," details how a company, an enterprise, actively competing (effectively) against major consumer packaged goods corporations has environmental sensitivity at its core as a socially responsible, and for profit business (and yes, its profitable!).

Sunrise Advisors -- based on our range of experiences, brought to working within this promising new movement in business, as well as those nonprofits that spin-off income-generating businesses to benefit their organizations, programs, and missions -- has developed a phrase that we feel best describes the kinds of enterprises we hope to help grow.

Creative Community Enterprises (CCEs) are what we like to describe as socially and environmentally-responsible, private sector, income-generating, job creating products and services businesses (even if owned by those sometimes not in the private sector) that view the marketplace -- the world(s) of their customers, neighbors, and fellow citizens of their individual countries, and the Earth -- as inherently interconnected, and that doing well and doing good makes the best operational common sense, including in their own enlightened self-interest.

Sunrise Advisors seeks to focus our energies and services on those Creative Community Enterprises (CCEs) that, in their strategic business planning, commitments to innovation, and daily operations, produce positive, measurable, sustainable results -- financially, and for our environment and our fellow humans -- not as afterthoughts, but rather, stakeholders in essential, shared success.