Comment évolue le rapport des entreprises sociales belges avec la philanthropie : exploration du cas des Compagnons de la terre

Abstract

This dissertation studies philanthropic funding and its evolution within social businesses. A special focus will be attributed to the case of the cooperative society “Les Compagnons de la Terre” throughout this work. Social businesses are nonprofit organizations working for the good of the community. They benefit from a wider range of possibilities to get funds than for-profit companies, which is philanthropy. We will dwell on the transitions through which philanthropic funding had to go over time, forcing social businesses to adapt in order to subsist. A new kind of philanthropy named “venture philanthropy” will also be analysed. Venture philanthropy deals with more personal investments on behalf of the benefactors, would it be money, time, advice or skills. As the analysed cooperative society is young, it immediately took advantage of that new venture philanthropy to finance itself based on what the founders thought was best for it. No evolution in its funding structure can be observed yet, but another analysis could study its potential variations over years.