social enterprise – Page 2 – Social Enterprise Development in the Baltic Sea Region

The Social Procurement Manual

This manual is a practical guide to integrating social businesses into corporate value chains created by Yunus Social Business as a part of research series “Business as Usual“.

What is social procurement?

We de-ladder fine ‘Social Procurement’ as the purchase of goods and services by companies from social businesses. Through social procurement, companies integrate social businesses into their supply chains with the explicit intention of creating social or environmental impact through their procurement. Social Procurement enables companies to drive impact directly via their supply chains (‘do good’ approach), extending beyond awareness building and mitigating supply chain risks (‘do no harm approach’).

More about the background of the manual

Today, there are already many successful examples of commercial partnerships between large corporations and social businesses. For instance, IKEA began working with the Indian social business Rangsutra in 2013, procuring small batches of handcrafted cushions. Eight years on, Rangsutra provides IKEA with more than 400,000 pieces a year, working with 2,000 artisans under a model in which most of them are also shareholders of the social enterprise.

Inspired by these stories, we wanted to understand the range of challenges that both sides face when working with each other, and the practices that are key success factors for both business value and social/ environmental impacts. For this research, we conducted qualitative interviews with over forty corporate leaders, social entrepreneurs and intermediary organisations that have extensive experience in these partnerships (our sample composition is available in the Appendix). We then created a survey for our research participants to validate some of the assumptions that we extrapolated from our interviews and preliminary research.

Our Social Procurement Manual is designed for companies who want to engage with the topic of Social Procurement. We share insights and frameworks to help them better understand the concept of Social Procurement, its value for corporations and the tools needed to create partnerships with social businesses more efficiently, increasing the impact on social businesses and corporate partners alike.

This publication has been prepared within SENBS project No. 2020- 1-EE01-KA204-077999. The content of this publication is the sole responsibility of the project coordinator and may not always reflect the views of the European Commission or the National Agency.

Blog | Educational Materials | Library

DESIGN THINKING FIELDGUIDE FOR SOCIAL ENTERPRISES AND INNOVATION

This field guide has been developed in response to the specific needs of Social Enterprises and other stakeholders within the social economy. Design Thinking has been proven as a way to help businesses and organizations respond to customer needs with innovative and human centered solutions. The guide is organized within a bespoke, socially oriented design thinking framework, containing free to use tools for each section and instructions and links to other resources within the instructions for each tool. There is a section on training and facilitation for support agencies, VET’s and in-house design thinking trainers.

The Design Thinking Guide is for social enterprises. The guide will be useful for many levels of social enterprises, from social entrepreneurs or start-up social enterprises to larger, longer standing social enterprise who are looking to become more sustainable. The guide is also designed for NGOs and civil society organizations, consultants and advisers in the social economy and design thinking sectors. It includes a well-documented step-by-step path to introduce you into the logic of the design thinking phases and how they are applicable to the philosophy and the challenges of social enterprises.

Below you can see the introductory video, but to access the whole guide, please click HERE.

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSXCA3B_36w[/embedyt]

This publication has been prepared within SENBS project No. 2020- 1-EE01-KA204-077999. The content of this publication is the sole responsibility of the project coordinator and may not always reflect the views of the European Commission or the National Agency.

Social Economy for the full inclusion of people with disabilities BEST PRACTICE GUIDE

Social Economy for the Full Inclusion of People with Disabilities: How and Why – An Introduction to Our Best Practice Guide

Actions speak louder than words, but how can companies, businesses and employers further include people with disabilities if they are not fully aware of the possibilities? The willingness of companies to make their businesses more accessible and inclusive is improving as various legal and societal incentives put healthy pressure on businesses to maximise opportunities for #inclusion4all. However, there is still much to be done to provide accessible information and create good practice examples that clearly demonstrate the benefits of inclusivity for all.

People with disabilities face a wide range of barriers daily to access services, transport, education and training, and employment. However, one area that has been highly successful in supporting, training, and employing people with disabilities is the social economy. This economic model (cooperatives, mutuals, associations, foundations and social enterprises, among other specific legal forms) is indeed a powerful tool that can contribute to the empowerment of people with disabilities, creating meaningful jobs and promoting inclusive working conditions. Indeed, social economy organisations represent a significant 6 to 8% of GDP across 27 European Union[1], which is committed to the labour integration of people with disabilities (in some countries they employ up to three times more workers with disabilities than traditional enterprises). Social economy organisations are people-centred entities applying internal flexibility to save jobs and maintain the socio-economic activity.

[1] What future for the social economy? (europa.eu)

Introducing the Best Practice Guide

To share highly successful and impactful examples of inclusivity in action, and demonstrate how barriers can be reduced or removed, Social Economy Europe has released a best practices guide: Social Economy for the Full Inclusion of People with Disabilities. The aim is to help communicate good practices which can be mirrored and adopted by any business, and raise awareness of the social economy’s potential for inclusion regarding the post-2020 Disability Strategy.

The post-2020 Disability Strategy will be a chance to take a comprehensive approach and generate awareness of the current contribution and the future potential of the social economy for a barrier-free Europe where people with disabilities can fully participate in society and enjoy their fundamental rights.

– Juan Antonio Pedreño, President of Social Economy EuropeTweet

We should keep in mind that this Guide is not an end in itself, but just one more step forward on the long road to full integration of persons with disabilities into society

– Yannis Vardakastanis, President of the European Disability Forum.Tweet

The Guide explores how social economy enterprises and organisations can work towards implementing the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and further contributing to the full integration of people with disabilities. It reminds us that both EU and national government leaders have the responsibility to create the right political and legislative environment that allows this integration to happen as well as incorporate appropriate funding! In 2017, the European Parliament adopted a Report calling for a new EU disability strategy 2020-2030. The report also contains various health-related recommendations, such as including a disability component. The guide states that “the new EU’s Disability Strategy 2020-2030 must ensure a harmonised implementation of the UN CRPD both by the EU and by the Member States and commit to new disability policies and legislations, in line with the 2030 Agenda.”

Let’s Meet the Best Practices

The 12 good practices include APEMH (Association des Parents d’Enfants Mentalement Handicapés), Luxembourg; Adelante Dolmen, Italy; Juncker Plan investment in ILUNION, Spain; The League of Historical and Accessible Cities, Europe; Ateliers Jean Del’Cour (JD’C), Belgium; FENACERCI, Portugal; AMADIP ESMENT, Spain; Tricentenaire group, Luxembourg; Les Genêts d’Or, France; Humana Nova, Croatia; TPK “Mara Dencheva” worker cooperative, Bulgaria and CECAP’s Group Social Business Factory, Spain.

So What are the Best Practices?

As a whole, the organisations, some of which comprise of umbrella organisations facilitating the work of other socially responsible entities, provide inclusive work opportunities in several areas including:

Gardening services
Cleaning
Examples of services
Chocolaterie Brand “Les chocolats du cœur”
Printing
Packaging services
Tea brand Au cœur du thé
Sales
Microbrewery
sewing and tailoring services.
Manufacturing of paper and cardboard products
Plastic products
Bookbinding services
Personal Protective Equipment for both local and foreign customers

This impressive group of organisations include fantastic initiatives which all businesses could potentially incorporate into their policies and practices. Just imagine the benefit from companies investing some of their profits to achieve this social goal. Good practices from this list include, but are by no means limited to; adapted support to individuals, often by providing residence and educational support structures; and incorporation of easy read and accessible information; specified training (often adapted to prepare young people with disabilities for their professional life, including internships). And is essential for a truly inclusive business, initiatives are often conceived in partnership with people with disabilities, ensuring equal opportunities and projects have a duel societal and ecological goal.

The projects focus on accessibility from the entire experience of the worker, from developing applications and software to facilitating people’s involvement as well as providing assistive devices. Redesigned routes for transport in cities, tactile billboards and sign language guides highlight the infrastructural changes that are often important and necessary for accessibility. Some of the companies demonstrate intelligent use of funding and government subsidies to offset initial costs. Furthermore, some examples use social assistants to ensure personal finances, health matters, administration and housing for employees is adequate.

Training can focus on two pillars; autonomy and increased skills to facilitate people’s integration into working life. Other companies promote transnational cooperation while teaching with alternate curricula and use sport for inclusion. The incorporation of professional certification following rigorous, personalised training of up to 2637 hours of “learning by doing” is a fine example of work integration.

This publication and the elaboration of this guide are co-funded by the European Social Fund, in the framework of the Transnational Cooperation initiative, Social Economy and Disability (SE&D), led by Fundación ONCE within the ESF Spanish OP “Social Inclusion and Social Economy” 2014-2020. The responsibility for the opinions expressed in this work is exclusively of their authors.

Read the full text here: SEE_SocialEconomy-4-the-inclusion-of-People-with-Disabilities_compressed

This publication has been prepared within SENBS project No. 2020- 1-EE01-KA204-077999. The content of this publication is the sole responsibility of the project coordinator and may not always reflect the views of the European Commission or the National Agency.

Educational Materials | English | Library

The Effective Methods and Practices for Accelerating Social Entrepreneurship Through Corporate Social Responsibility

Article “The Effective Methods and Practices for Accelerating Social Entrepreneurship Through Corporate Social Responsibility” written by:

Audrone UrmanavicieneTallinn University, School of Governance, Law and Societyhttp://orcid.org/0000-0003-1621-0101
Udara Suwanda ArachchiTallinn University, School of Governance, Law and Societyhttp://orcid.org/0000-0003-2618-6758

DOI: https://doi.org/10.13135/2704-9906/5085

Keywords: Corporate culture, Effective methods, Social enterprise, Social impact, Social value creation, Sustainability

ABSTRACT

The concepts of Social entrepreneurship and Corporate Social Responsibility have similar values from the social value perspective. Social entrepreneurship focuses on solving social issues, creating a positive social impact in an innovative entrepreneurial way, and profit maximization is not the primary target. Corporations focus on creating economic values and profit maximization; and use the CSR concept as a tool to maintain socially responsible business conduct. Both CSR and social entrepreneurship concepts represent the same sustainable values in different ways. Thus, finding effective methods for accelerating social entrepreneurship through CSR activities will be fruitful for the betterment of the corporation’s stakeholders, social entrepreneurs, and society at large. This paper aims to explore the current CSR activities of corporations that influence social entrepreneurship development and to identify the most effective methods/practices to accelerate social entrepreneurship. This study follows the qualitative inductive research methodology; and, the content analysis method has been used to analyze the collected data through the in-depth semi-structured expert interviews. It has been found that the current CSR practices for social entrepreneurship development are comparatively less than other community development and philanthropic considerations. Moreover, the challenges for social entrepreneurs and the expectations of corporations have been thoroughly discussed. The effective methods and practices have been suggested for both corporations and social entrepreneurs to accelerate social entrepreneurship by CSR activities with mutual benefits and creating social value; as a win-win situation.

Read here: https://www.ojs.unito.it/index.php/ejsice/article/view/5085/4691

This publication has been prepared within SENBS project No. 2020- 1-EE01-KA204-077999. The content of this publication is the sole responsibility of the project coordinator and may not always reflect the views of the European Commission or the National Agency.

Educational Materials | English | Library

SOCIAL IMPACT INVESTMENTS AS A TOOL FOR FUNDING SOCIAL ENTERPRISES

Purpose: Social impact investments are essential to support and promote social entrepreneurship development. This article aims to identify the factors that could develop the local impact investment market in Sri Lanka as a tool for funding social enterprises.

Design/methodology/approach: The methods of research are an analysis of scientific literature, experts’ interviews, and generalization.

Findings: In order to accelerate the impact investment as a tool of funding, the impact investors, social enterprises, government and society must work collectively. Necessary social, cultural, and policy changes should be carried out, and specific recommendations have been made accordingly.

Originality/value: This research study is essential in terms of sustaining and promoting impact investments in Sri Lanka as a tool of funding social enterprises and developing the ecosystem.

Keywords: social enterprise, social impact investing, impact investments, finance, investors.

Category of the paper: Research paper.

Read here: Social impact investments as a tool for funding social enterprises

Audrone URMANAVICIENE, Kulamini Dilanka MENDIS (2021). Social impact investments as a tool for funding social enterprises. Scientific Papers of Silesian University of Technology Organization and Management Series, 691−711. DOI: 10.29119/1641-3466.2021.151.48.

This publication has been prepared within SENBS project No. 2020- 1-EE01-KA204-077999. The content of this publication is the sole responsibility of the project coordinator and may not always reflect the views of the European Commission or the National Agency.

Educational Materials | English | Library

Social Enterprises in Rural Areas A Comparative Study of the Baltic States

This article provides a cross-case analysis of rural social enterprises from Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia.

Social enterprises seek to produce goods and services with a social or environmental purpose, and they pursue the general interest of local communities, people and/or social groups. The orientation towards the public good does not imply that social enterprises do not undertake strategies to achieve economic and financial efficiency; on the contrary, they must constantly create economic value to guarantee their survival over time. The successful operation of rural social enterprises is highly dependent on their relationships with their stakeholders. Many interest groups can indeed be involved in social enterprises; they can be divided into external stakeholders and internal stakeholders. Rural emigration and migration to cities is a major issue in the three countries, following the economic and social changes of the 1990s.

Blog | Inspiration

Kuźnia cafe from Gdańsk, Poland – pleace run by people with big hearts!

The Kuźnia cafe belongs to the network of social companies run by the Foundation for Social Innovation. It was established in 2012 as a place of first contact with work for young people from foster care facilities and other educational institutions aiming at young people at the risk of social exclusion run by the Gdańsk Foundation for Social Innovation. Here, through work, young people gain their first experience, develop and forge their professional fate. In the coffee shop, they have the opportunity to gain the first experience in customer service and teamwork, learn discipline, organization and all those qualities that future employers require.
The Kuźnia Cafe is a place with a soul and a unique atmosphere, combining history and tradition with modernity, created in a historic arcaded house built in 1800. For many years it was neglected and abandoned, but after renovation and under the constant care of the conservator of monuments, it regained its former glory. In the cafe, there are many items related to the subject of blacksmithing and old times. The most valuable is a framed photo of the last family of blacksmiths who lived in Kuźnia.
Users of the cafe services support the professional development program of young people and contribute to the implementation of the corporate social responsibility initiative.
In addition to food products, the cafe offers a Reading Corner, Musical Evenings and the opportunity to participate in art workshops.The Kuźnia cafe also has a seasonal point called Wozownia, located in the Oruński Park in Gdańsk.
The profit from both places is re-invested in care and educational institutions – homes for children.
Foundation for Social Innovation (FIS) is one of the most important Gdansk’ actors in the area of social entrepreneurship. The Foundation was established to implement social and professional activation programs in the social enterprises it creates, where the profit is re-invested in supporting young people in a difficult life situation. Social enterprises created and run by FIS are a bridge introducing young people to the labour market.

Since 2012, FIS has been running a social enterprise – the “Kuźnia” cafe in Orunia, Gdańsk. In the cafe, as mentioned above, they serve aromatic coffee, homemade cakes, desserts, etc. They also cater to special events and support artists in organizing exhibitions inside the atmospheric Forge. A charming cafe in the smallest arcaded house in Żuławy is forging young talents. T

In 2015, FIS launched and runs the first socially responsible hotel in Poland – So Stay hotel, located at ul. Kartuska 18 in Gdańsk. We presented this initiative here: https://socialenterprisebsr.net/social-enterprises/so-stay-hotel-city-business/ In a three-star, intimate facility, they offer 17 comfortable, air-conditioned rooms, training rooms, and catering services in So Eat hotel restaurant. They prepare young people for workplaces in the hotel, i.e. cook, waiter, room service, reception service.

All pictures are from Kuźnia Caffee official Facebook profile

– https://www.facebook.com/KawiarniaKuznia

Visit also their webiste: https://kawiarniakuznia.pl

This publication has been prepared within SENBS project No. 2020- 1-EE01-KA204-077999. The content of this publication is the sole responsibility of the project coordinator and may not always reflect the views of the European Commission or the National Agency.

Blog

Change Please – A successful english social enterprise

Change Please, started in 2015 in London by giving homeless people the opportunity to run their own mobile coffee shop. Since then, the company has been very successful.
Change Please’s coffee is now available in Virgin Atlantic’s aircraft, the company has started selling England’s only CO2 neutral toilet paper and have recently bought a larger coffee bar chain all to help homeless people.

The core activity of Change Please is to train homeless people to become baristas and in that way hopefully get access to the labor market.

Homeless people start as interns at Change Please’s Specialty Coffee Association training center, where they cover all aspects of coffee making, from green beans and frying to making “latte art” and customer service. The goal is to equip them with the skills and experience so they can start a new career and get a safe place to live.

In addition to providing the homeless with work skills, the focus is also on the broader needs of homeless people. With a secure income, one can e.g. start helping to improve living conditions, help with therapy needs. Change Please also helps with some of the practical administrative challenges that homeless people face when they return to working and have to manage their finances.

In addition to selling coffee from mobile coffee bars, Change Please has also produced its own coffee blends, which eg. are sold in Sainsbury’s 375 stores across the UK and in Change Please’s own webshop. The webshop also sells shopping bags and T-shirts.

100% of the profits that Change Please receives is uset to give homeless people, a living wage job, housing, education, opportunities in the future – and in general a good start to a new and better life.

Serious Tissues – new initiative
In 2020, Change Please expanded its activities with a new initiative – Serious Tissues.
Serious Tissues is a toilet paper brand of 100% recycled paper that is CO2 neutral , which is sold to help frontline employees in the NHS (England’s national health service). The brand and the visual identity have been developed by the independent creative agency, Above + Beyond.

The original intention of the initiative was to focus on tackling climate change through a commitment to plant trees around the world. But Corona has provided a more immediate need. So instead the Serious Tissues initiative has chosen that every penny from initiative should go to help patients and volunteers because they are dealing with this crisis on behalf of everyone else.

100% of the profits from Serious Tissues goes to the NHS Charities Together COVID-19 Urgent Appeal initiative. The initiative is coordinated by NHS Charities Together, which is an umbrella organization for 170 of NHS charitable initiatives across the UK. The money will be used where it is most needed and distributed by local NHS charities to eg. help NHS staff through the demanding long shifts they have in trying to fight the disease, as well as help with travel, parking and accommodation expenses for staff and volunteers and to support the recovery of NHS staff and volunteers after the pandemic.

To make the brand CO2 neutral Serious Tissues plant a tree for every roll of toilet paper that is sold. Serious Tissues works with communities in a number of countries and helps create employment for people who need it. The trees are currently planted in the United Kingdom, Nepal, Indonesia, Madagascar, Mozambique, Kenya, Ethiopia, Haiti, Colombia and Central America. The trees planted are indigenous species that are native to the regions in which they are planted.

In addition to toilet paper, the Serious brand also has a soap product – Serious Soap. Serious Soap is an initiative to combat plastic pollution in the oceans, and for every soap bar sold, 3 kilos of plastic are removed from the oceans.

Expanding to news locations
To further increase its impact, Change Please has just acquired AMT Coffee, which is a coffee shop chain with 55 coffee bars. This is done as part of a strategy to create more social enterprises.
It is p
art of the purchase agreement that Change Please retains the 370 employees that AMT Coffee has today.The 55 coffee bars are located in connection with airports, train stations and hospitals.
The purchase is financed by Change Please itself as well as with loans and fund donations from Social Investment Business and Comic Relief. In connection with the acquisition, Change Please has taken over a debt of £ 5 million that AMT Coffee primarily owed in rent. According to Cemal Ezel, head of Change Please, the AMT coffee shops will be run as a separate company owned by Change Please and the profits from the company will be donated to Change Please. (Or more precisely to Change Please´s community interest company).

Change Please across borders
Change Please is not just expanding in England. In November 2020, Change Please Australia was launched in Perth, Western Australia in collaboration with the Australian organization Five Senses. The good results that Change Please has had in England in bringing homeless people to work as coffee baristas can now hopefully be transferred to Western Australia. There are currently about 9,000 homeless people here, so there is a need for solutions that the Chang Please can provide.

Read more about Change Please at: https://changeplease.org
Watch YouTube video about Change Please here

In Denmark, the social enterprise Kaffe Karma works according to the same idea of helping the homeless by selling organic coffee to-go from mobile coffee shops, from events and arrangements or directly from the company’s webshop. For the time being, Kaffe Karma is primarily active in the Copenhagen area.

Sources :Pioneers Post and Big Issue

This publication has been prepared within SENBS project No. 2020- 1-EE01-KA204-077999. The content of this publication is the sole responsibility of the project coordinator and may not always reflect the views of the European Commission or the National Agency.

Blog

It is ok not to be a social entrepreneur

Not every NGO has to become a social enterprise in order to reach its mission.

When I came to North Macedonia for the EU-funded project on Social Entrepreneurship on the last day of August in 2020 I was pumped. I was pumped about making a change and enlighten local activists and social entrepreneurs. After all, we all want to be sustainable and strong, aren’t we?

Soon after arrival, I started to question myself. Is this really what locals need now? Imagine you are asked to break a wall with your bare head. What would you do? Imagine we as consultants are being told to tell you to hit the wall with your bare head. What would you do?

I have been meeting online and offline dozens of Macedonian NGOs. Most of them have been aware of social entrepreneurship but did no really had a pressure to become one or incentives that would make sense for them to do so. After all, if you get a grant why would you need to worry about developing your service or product, investing in the capacities of your staff, buying some production equipment (if necessary), starting to look for customers, competing with public and private companies as well as NGOs that sell the same stuff but are backed wither by governmental connections, private investments or donor’s funding. All of this sounds like a stupid idea. At the end of the day, you have to invest more into reaching your social mission and doing some impact than any other of your competitors out there. However, nearly 10 percent of the economy in the European Union belongs to the social economy. Do you think they are as stupid as you as well? Don’t you see the room for potential and action?

Finding your place in this mess may look like an impossible idea. But think long term. Imagine one day there will be no grants. What will you do? Social enterprise can give you wings.

So here comes our project. Despite 0 incentives and support from the government today, we want you to think about becoming a social enterprise tomorrow. We want to give you a helmet so that hitting the wall is less painful.

We want to provide you with the necessary skills, information, and connections that can make you better, faster, more professional, and more competitive. We want to give you nonreturnable startup capital of up to 30.000 EUR (separate grant from the EU Del) for your product development. We want to show you that there is life beyond being reliant on grants only as well.

Imagine you can make money and help destitute people every day, by providing them with work integration solutions, jobs, food, shelter on a rolling and sustainable basis. This is how we see it. Being a social entrepreneur is not easy, but it is very rewarding!

It’s up to you what will be your choice at the end of the day but getting enrolled in our training program, assistance, and grant scheme will not hurt for sure. Even if you will not use the opportunities we will still respect your choice.

After all, not everyone can be a social enterprise. But at least, you may try to become one! Will you try?

by Mindaugas Danys, Capacity Development Expert

Blog | Learn | Youth

5 ways social enterprise funders can act differently in 2021

As world is rapidly changing in face of the COVID-19 crisis we highly recommend you reading this article by Lior Ipp from Roddenberry Foundation, explaining how social entrepreneurs can act differently in current year.

5 ways social enterprise funders can act differently in 2021

The COVID-19 crisis has exposed the fragility of global systems and created a new awareness around glaring inequities;
Many organizations, including the World Economic Forum’s COVID Response Alliance for Social Entrepreneurs, are calling for a more urgent and intentional focus on “building back better”;
Funders have an opportunity and a duty to reimagine their roles in order to make grantmaking more equitable and move us towards the new normal.

The profound economic and social devastation caused by COVID-19 has placed the world in uncharted territory. The fragility and inequality of our core societal systems have come into sharp relief and the tools we use to bolster them have been tested in unprecedented ways.

With recovery efforts in full swing, many organizations including the World Economic Forum’s COVID Response Alliance for Social Entrepreneurs are calling for a more urgent and intentional focus on “building back better”.

Amidst these efforts, many philanthropic institutions have revisited their funding strategies and priorities, committing billions of dollars and pledging to streamline and improve their funding processes. Indeed, the Alliance has highlighted five important actions that funders can take, including more collaborative, expedited and innovative models, that will move us towards a new normal.

*5 actions from the COVID Response Alliance for Social Entrepreneurs*

*Image: World Economic Forum*

In our own work at The Roddenberry Foundation and through feedback from hundreds of social entrepreneurs involved in our +1 Global Fund, we’ve heard an appeal for funders to do things differently. As social entrepreneurs shift from survival to resilience, their priorities and obligations are changing. Mahila Housing Sewa Trust in India, a recent recipient of +1 funding, used its vast networks in 14 cities to help women and girls survive during the pandemic. As this organization looks ahead, the reality facing its constituents – lost wages, homelessness and long-term poverty – amidst weakened and broken systems is as daunting as the crisis itself.

The question now is less about how funders operated pre-COVID-19 or even our response in 2020, it’s about what’s next. In the past year, five important themes have emerged from our work that are worth considering as we all reimagine our roles beyond the pandemic:

1. Lean into trust
For too long, we have accepted the trust deficit between grantors and grantees. We see it in risk-averse funding strategies, over-reliance on reporting, top-down decision-making and unnecessary demands on grantees. As we look ahead, the easiest way to (re)establish trust is to make the time-consuming mechanisms funders typically use – applications, interviews, deadlines and lengthy reports – more user-friendly or, better still, just eliminate them. If we intend to work alongside and in partnership with grantees, we need to take an honest look at the tools we use to identify, vet and select them.

2. Build an inclusive framework
Access to funding is too often a result of social capital, access to information, and fundraising skills that are unavailable to many. Gender, race, geography and education all play a role in influencing who has access, so we need more democratic and transparent funding models that focus on reaching a more diverse pool of organizations and individuals. Without such adjustments, these grantees would be difficult to find, let alone fund. To make grant-making more equitable, it’s critical we consider alternatives for how and from where potential grantees are identified and selected.

*The COVID Response Alliance for Social Entrepreneurs in numbers*

*Image: World Economic Forum*

3. Don’t reinvent the wheel
We must recognize and take advantage of existing networks, efforts, and strategies – particularly those of our grantees – in support of new funding models. The year 2020 was a powerful reminder of the speed and creativity with which social entrepreneurs can pivot, amplify their work and use their networks to meet the challenges of a crisis. We should tap into and further support these new networks (such as Catalyst2030), collaborative frameworks (such as Alliance4Socent) and adaptive strategies that have emerged in recent months.

4. Shift the locus of power
Confronting the underlying issues of inequality in our societal systems that have come to light in 2020 will require the expertise and insights of those who have a stake in seeing them dismantled or altered. One way we’ve done this is by placing social entrepreneurs at the centre of the funding process – by creating a space for genuine partnership that enables shared decision-making and accountability, promotes flexibility and transparency, and accepts experimentation and failure. This needs to become a standard approach for funders.

5. Make it local
The hyper-local nature of the pandemic has meant that most interventions must account for variances in geographic, economic, political and public health systems across and within different countries and cities. The greatest need and opportunity to combat the long-term impact of the crisis is at the community level. It is crucial that we work hand-in-hand with our communities to understand their specific needs and priorities. as well as how we can jointly benefit from collaboration for years to come.

The call for more creative and efficient ways to fund social entrepreneurs is certainly not new; what is new is an awareness of the glaring inequities that have been brought to light and worsened by the pandemic.

As we’ve come to realize and reckon with the fragility of our systems and understand the magnitude of the crisis, so too must we consider what role we as funders want to play shaping and embracing a ‘new normal’. We have an opportunity and an obligation to do things differently; ensuring that we “build back better” will depend on it.

Source: https://www.weforum.org/

This publication has been prepared within INDIGISE project. The content of this publication is the sole responsibility of the project coordinator and may not always reflect the views of the European Commission or the National Agency.

Introducing the Best Practice Guide

Let’s Meet the Best Practices

So What are the Best Practices?

ABSTRACT

As world is rapidly changing in face of the COVID-19 crisis we highly recommend you reading this article by Lior Ipp from Roddenberry Foundation, explaining how social entrepreneurs can act differently in current year.

5 ways social enterprise funders can act differently in 2021

We’d Love To Hear From You!