Operating as a social enterprise, TEK is unique among charitable organizations doing great work in the community.  A social enterprise is defined by the Social Enterprise Alliance as “an organization or venture that achieves its primary social or environmental mission using business methods.” As a social enterprise, TEK uses it manufacturing facility as a "real world" training ground for its participants. Women who participate in TEK’s experiential training program are learning job skills by working in all facets of our business operations.  When participants leave TEK, they have learned real job skills in a real business setting, placing them in a strong position to succeed in the workplace.

As a social enterprise, however, TEK's success depends upon its ability not only to provide participants with the skills they need to achieve self-sufficiency, but also its ability to deliver exceptional products and service to our customers.  Without our loyal customers, TEK could not provide workforce preparation for our women.  As a result, in measuring our success as an organization, TEK continually assesses the strength of our training program as well as the success of our products in the marketplace.

We measue the success of our program against two critical benchmarks:  (1) the percentage of women who complete the training program annually and move into permanent employment or advanced training; and (2) the percentage of TEK graduates still employed at least one year following graduation.  We measure the success of our business against three principal benchmarks:  (1) customer retention; (2) top-line revenue growth; and (3) the environmental sustainability of our operations.