In particular, community enterprises, like social enterprises, have a
strong commercial ethos and generate a substantial part of their revenue through trading – they
rely upon ‘enterprise’ rather than philanthropy and government subsidy to finance their social
objectives. This means that social and community enterprises are not wholly dependent upon
external sources of funding. In contrast to corporations, however, their assets are held in trust for
the constituency they serve, and any surpluses are reinvested in the business or the community.