The purpose-driven business ecosystem map
A map to help you navigate the supporting infrastructure for purpose-driven business.
Starting a purpose-driven business, or embedding purpose into an existing business, can be a challenge. Whether seeking aligned funding, innovating, or measuring impact, knowing where to look for support can be hard.
More and more founders are starting companies that intend to benefit the world, and more and more established businesses are talking and acting seriously about climate change and on their responsibilities towards society. Encouragingly, the supporting ecosystem of those who help such businesses is growing.
Lead author(s): Harry Brown
Feedback: Please get in touch if you feel we have missed any organisations, mis-categorised or included organisations that shouldn't be on there.
Resources
Last updated: June 2021
Licencing: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Attribution: We would love for people to copy and share this work but would like to be referenced when doing so.
A map of the ecosystem
We created the purpose-driven business ecosystem map info-graphic to provide a top-down view of organisations and other actors that are involved in helping purpose-driven businesses to thrive and be successful, as well as those who are helping businesses transition. This can be useful to provide a general view of who we see as collaborators operating in various categories.
We have also published the directory as an open data source (Google Sheets) that contains summary information about each organisation, including contact information, addresses and social media links, where they are available. We have attached the taxonomy of the table in case to help anyone that wants to create any data-driven products from this resource.
We endeavour to keep this information updated as regularly as possible.
A Library of maps
There are a number of other useful maps providing alternate views of the ecosystem that we can also recommend. Enjoy!
Economics of Mutuality - Economic system map: A good tool to build narratives for describing the context and ecosystem within which business fits.
Laudes Foundation - Economic system map: A whole system map, great for exploratory work, investigating system linkages such as who is doing what.
Good Finance - Social Investors, Funds & Advisers: A list of social investors and advisers mapped to the UK regions.
Insights
Total organisations: 301
LOCATION
The map focuses on the UK ecosystem, so while the majority of entities (88%) on the map are UK-based, some core organisations that are headquartered elsewhere are also included.
Of those based in the UK, there is a degree of London-centricity, with 68% of the entities located in the capital. The North West and South East are the next regions with the next most organisations located.
| Region | Count | Percent |
|---|---|---|
| Greater London | 181 | 68% |
| North West | 19 | 7% |
| South East | 17 | 6% |
| South West | 12 | 5% |
| East of England | 11 | 4% |
| West Midlands | 9 | 3% |
| Scotland | 9 | 3% |
| Yorkshire & Humberside | 6 | 2% |
| Wales | 3 | 1% |
| Northern Ireland | 3 | 1% |
| North East | 1 | 0.38% |
| No postcode | 29 | 11% |
| Grand Total | 301 | 100% |
CATEGORIES
42% of the entities mapped are providing support services such as consultancies and advice and impact measurement. 22% of entities provide investment. 17% of entities provide professional networks that enable practitioners to share ideas and support each other. Only 2% of entities provide consumer-facing information, which is perhaps a potential growth area.
| Category | Count | Percent |
|---|---|---|
| Support and recognition | 126 | 42% |
| Investment | 66 | 22% |
| Networks | 52 | 17% |
| Research | 37 | 12% |
| Movements and campaigns | 37 | 12% |
| Government | 5 | 2% |
| Consumer | 5 | 2% |
| Grand Total | 301 | 100% |
How we built the map
We published an initial ecosystem map in June 2020, which attracted suggestions from our network of other organisations that should be included, alongside those we have come across during our research.
Selection criteria: The map is focused on organisations that support purpose-driven businesses. Our goal was to find as many organisations as we could that we felt met that criteria. The list was created through general knowledge of key actors and web-searches, and was further snowballed from connections and introduction from contacts. We welcome further suggestions!
Geographic filtering: We filtered out organisations that did not have a significant focus in the UK, unless they were a core international organisation that has significant engagement or impact in the UK.
Geographic mapping: Locations were derived from the postcodes listed on the entities websites. For organisations with multiple offices, additional rows were created in the directory to enable the mapping of each office. In some cases the addresses were not available on the website, if it was possible to determine the area of work then this was added manually, otherwise it was left blank.
Categorisation: Each organisation was assessed by looking at its purpose as described in their “About us”, “Mission”, “Vision” and other information available on their websites. Entities that fit into multiple categories are duplicated within the directory. Entities that were hard to place in the defined taxonomy were done so with a best estimate. The aim of this is to be illustrative and to aid collaboration. If you are on the map and feel that you are in the wrong place, or if you are not on the map and think you should be, then please do let us know.
Taxonomy: The ecosystem is the “real world” space where all of the supporting organisations for purpose-driven businesses operate in. We see these categories as essential components for this part of the economy to grow and scale. We defined this space organisations that fall into the following categories and subcategories that we feel are essential for success:
Consumer
Consumer awareness: A consumer-facing organisation, raising awareness of purpose-driven entrepreneurs or businesses.
Government
Government: Government departments, committees or NDPBs linked to the purpose-driven business space.
Investment
Advisors: Providing sector leadership and advice.
Angel networks: A network of individuals providing capital for purpose-driven entrepreneurs.
Crowdfunding: An organisation raising money from large numbers of people in order to fund purpose-driven entrepreneurs / businesses.
Investment groups: An organisation specialising in investing in organisations that work for positive social or environmental benefits.
Trusts and foundations: A trust or foundation that makes grants to support purpose-driven businesses or others in the ecosystem.
Networks
Co-working: A co-working space specifically targeting purpose-driven businesses or entrepreneurs.
Membership: An organisation or platform that brings together those operating in the purpose-driven business space through paid or free membership.
Purpose aligned meeting space: A networking or meeting space specifically targeting purpose-driven businesses or entrepreneurs.
Movements and campaigns
Movements and campaigns: A group of organisations attempting to restructure the current economic system to enable greater social and / or environmental impact through business.
Research
Academia: Academic institutions carrying out recent research into purpose-driven business space.
Think tank: Think-tanks carrying out recent research into purpose-driven business space.
Support and recognition
Accelerators and incubators: Accelerator or incubator programmes designed to support purpose-driven entrepreneurs.
Awards, competitions and events: Events that bring the industry together, drive innovation and promote competition amongst purpose-driven entrepreneurs, businesses and others in the ecosystem.
Certification: Independent organisations that seek to certify whether or not a business is purpose-driven.
Consultants and advisors: Consultants and mentors specifically focusing on helping businesses find and be purpose-driven and have a positive social and environmental impact.
Impact measurement and reporting: Independent organisations that conduct social and / or environmental impact assessments.
Recruitment: Providing recruitment services, primarily serving purpose-driven businesses.
Note: We may review the taxonomy for future revisions of the map.
