Dignity is an accredited social enterprise with Ākina

Late 2018, the Dignity team went through a rigorous process to become a certified social enterprise with the Ākina foundation. This involved ensuring that what we do is consistent with us being bound by our mission as opposed to profit or maximising return to shareholders.

With the certification logo above, as a corporate or individual you can understand there has been a process of certification that has occurred to make sure we are genuine, driven and most importantly mission bound as an organisation - in our case this is towards providing access to sanitary items to those in need and working towards eradicating period poverty.

Who is Ākina ?

The Ākina Foundation is New Zealand’s principal intermediary for social enterprise and have been named the strategic partner to Government in the development of the Social Enterprise sector.

You can find out more here: http://akina.org.nz/about/our-story/

What is Fwd?

Ākina has launched fwd: the online social procurement marketplace

Through signing up, for the very first time in New Zealand, corporate buyers will have access to social enterprises, certified by Ākina with our brand new accreditation mark.

fwd: is a new platform that enables social procurement. It's like traditional procurement, only smarter. That's because you have the opportunity to spend the same dollar twice. Social procurement puts positive impact in your organisation's supply chain.

Find out more at: fwd.org.nz

What does the accreditation mark mean?

The fwd: certification mark enables Dignity to demonstrate our credibility.

It means we have gone through our certification process and from the information provided, fwd are confident that we meet our definition of a social enterprise.

A social enterprise is a purpose-driven business that trades to deliver social, cultural

and/or environmental impact.

The definition used to certify defines a social enterprise as an organisation that:

○ Has a primary social, cultural and/or environmental mission;

○ Generates the majority of its revenue through trade;

○ Spends the majority of its expenditure and/or profit on the fulfillment of its purpose.

Read about some of the buyers part of this platform: http://akina.org.nz/news/big-businesses-sign-big-change-social-procurement-programme/

What should I watch out for when other not accredited organisations are calling themselves social enterprises?

A growing trend is for some companies to be social washing or impact washing, the Ākina Foundation wrote a really important blog on this and it is important to understand the real reasoning behind why companies would use social issues to promote their brand.

If companies do not have the accreditation logo or any affiliation to Akina, and are using social issues in part of their marketing or selling process, it is best to be wary of the intentions behind this promotion.