What Is A Social Enterprise?
Paper Trail is a charity and social enterprise, but what is a social enterprise and how can it help the community?
Let’s dive into what a social enterprise is and how it can compliment the work of a charity. Paper Trail is both.
First, a charity is a non-profit-making organisation that maintains its social mission through funding and donations. In Paper Trail’s case, it is funded by PEACEPLUS and Victims and Survivors Service.
It also receives donations in the past from the likes of the Irish American Unity Conference and my writing here on Substack elsewhere.
Next, a social enterprise is a business with primarily social objectives that sells products and services and reinvests any surpluses in the charity or local community so that it can advance its social mission.
So, Paper Trail sells its expert services in legacy archive research to the legal profession and media to support its charitable work with victims and survivors.
Mission
Paper Trail’s social mission is to discover historical information buried in public archives relating to the conflict in Ireland and Britain and to ensure that it reaches the families who need and deserve it - victims and survivors from across the community impacted by the violence.
This information in official archives may be upsetting, especially since it has been hidden for so long, but I believe that it is the families' by right.
Paper Trail has a vision for open government and freedom of information for the benefit of every Irish and British citizen.
Business for Social Good
Paper Trail has its genesis in my own pursuit for truth in justice regarding the murder of my grandmother in the McGurk’s Bar Massacre of 4th December 1971. Kathleen Irvine was one of fifteen civilians murdered that night by British extremists. Two children lay among the dead too.
To compound the families’ grief, the British armed forces blamed the attack on the victims and have covered up the true circumstances of the atrocity for over half a century.
You can read about the families’ ongoing Campaign for Truth here.
For many years before the founding of Paper Trail, I helped other families access information regarding the death of their loved ones, and worked closely with their legal representatives to help build their cases.
More families sought support and legal firms asked to pay for my time, so we created Paper Trail as a charity and social enterprise. Although it is much more difficult to manage a charity and social enterprise, it best suited the ethos of the work I did and I felt more comfortable selling my legacy archive services as long as any profit was reinvested to support the work of Paper Trail.
So, Paper Trail helps families in their search for truth, and it is driven by a simple belief in human rights and social justice. It is run on a shoestring budget and I am the Paper Trail’s sole employee, but this means I have to learn new skills and innovate to save time and money for the charity.
10 Years Later
Unfortunately, the need for Paper Trail has grown since 2014, mainly due to the failure of the British government to deal with the legacy of its past.
You can read about its work over the last decade here.
However rewarding and valuable, Paper Trail's work remains laborious, time-consuming, and costly, but we did all of this with the support of families and volunteers from across the community over the last decade.
Every penny counts.
You can follow us here and on Paper Trail’s website.