Collecting Data on Social Enterprises 2025

Images: Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship Disclaimer This document is published by the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship, in partnership with the World Economic Forum as a contribution to a project, insight area or interaction. The findings, interpretations and conclusions expressed herein are a result of a collaborative process facilitated and endorsed by the Schwab Foundation but whose results do not necessarily represent the views of the Schwab Foundation or the World Economic Forum, nor the entirety of its Members, Partners or other stakeholders. © 2025 the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship and the World Economic Forum. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system.Contents A letter from the Advisory Group on Social Enterprise Data 3 Executive summary 4 Introduction 5 1 The challenge 6 1.1 The advisory group 6 2.2 Methodology 6 1.3. Purpose and audience 8 2 Collecting data that matters 9 2.1 Purpose of data collection 10 2.2 The co-design process 11 2.3 Data collection 13 2.4 Data storage 14 2.5 Data presentation and publication 14 2.6 Potential limitations and flaws 15 2.7 Other data gathering methodologies 16 Conclusion 19 Appendix 1: List of surveys 20 Appendix 2: List of common survey themes 22 Appendix 3: List of definitions 23 Contributors 25 Endnotes 27 Collecting Data on Social Enterprises: A Playbook for Practitioners 2