School for thought

: creating a social enterprise for the children of Laos

Abstract

This thesis presents the issue of financial sustainability for social enterprises through the example of School for Thought - SFT. This organization aims at offering an education service to the children of Laos but first needs to find the financial resources to begin the project. With a first question regarding the best business model that SFT can implement, my teaching case study focuses then on the available financial tools that the organization can implement. With my analysis I propose different financial tools that social enterprise can apply depending on their characteristics. This study can function as a guideline to social enterprises by offering them simple rules to overcome common challenges that they might face in their startup phase; they can find advice to shape their primary features, their business model and reach financial sustainability.

Date of Award	21 Jul 2016
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Tommaso Ramus (Supervisor)