Non-profit Guide: Picking Winning Social Enterprise Ideas

Three people with their thumbs up around having chosen the best social enterprise idea.

If you’re like most non-profits, once you’ve set your social enterprise evaluation criteria, the first thing you want to do is jump into brainstorming ideas. And why not? This is the fun part!

When doing “green-light thinking” brainstorming every idea and every voice is important.  Mix and match your techniques to ensure everyone has a chance to contribute.  Generally, a mix of individual contributions (sticky notes or going around the room asking everyone for ideas) is a great way to start; then, build up to a “free-flowing” conversation where ideas build on each other. Always be sure to invite the quiet, thoughtful ones to contribute.

This green-light thinking is a brainstorming session where every idea is a great idea. This phase is about capturing all ideas, seeing what sparks, and noticing which ones keep coming back. It’s creative, energizing, and often surprising.

After you feel you’ve exhausted your brainstorming power, here’s who to sort through the list and pick your top 3 winning social enterprise ideas:

Step 1: Sort and simplify

When the ideas start to slow down, pause for a moment and look at the big picture. Start organizing your ideas. Begin by looking for:

• Which ideas overlap or fit together?

• Which stand on their own?

• Can any be combined or simplified?

This quick check helps you organize what you’ve generated before moving deeper.

Step 2: Look for alignment

Now take your categorized list and ask bigger-picture questions, including:

• Which ideas excite both the board and management team?

• Which align with your mission, vision, and values – whether social enterprise or agency?

• Which build on your existing strengths?

• Which move you closer to your strategic goals?

• Do you have the capacity to pursue them?

Use these questions to help you pick your top 10 ideas.

Step 3: Score against criteria

Run those 10 ideas through the social enterprise evaluation criteria, you developed earlier. Have each board and management team member score ideas individually, then tally the results as a group.

Don’t forget to use your weighted scoring formula. This ensures the results reflect what matters most to your organization, whether that’s community impact, financial sustainability, or risk tolerance.

Step 4: Narrow to your top 3–5

Review the results. Which ideas rise to the top? Are they what you expected? This is a good time to pause for an open, honest discussion:

• Do these ideas reflect where we want to go?

• Which ones are most likely to set us up for long-term success?

• Are these ideas ones the board, staff, and community can truly get behind?

By the end of this step, you should feel confident confirming your top three ideas to begin deeper feasibility testing.

Step 5: Test Feasibility

Before you go all in, it’s time to test the reality of your ideas with a quick feasibility study:

• How big is the market?

• What’s the demand for the product or service?

• Who will purchase it, and how much will they pay?

• Who are your competitors?

• How will you reach your customers?

These answers will give you a clearer sense of what’s possible — and what isn’t.

👉 Need help with your feasibility testing? Read How

to Test Your Non-profit Social Enterprise Idea.

Moving forward with confidence

Selecting your top social enterprise ideas isn’t just about creativity. It’s about building a process that ensures your organization picks ideas that are mission-aligned, financially sustainable, and realistic to pursue.

✨ Ready to explore what social enterprise could look like for your non-profit? I can help you plan your next, great social enterprise with planning support, hand-on facilitation, and more.

Book a Get Curious! Discovery Session with HIP Strategic — let’s brainstorm together and find the ideas worth pursuing.