social entrepreneurs

Campaign to boost social enterprise sector in Ireland

Business Spirit News reporting — Tue, 15 Nov 2022 10:43:18 +0000

Campaign to boost social enterprise sector in Ireland

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social enterprise

social entrepreneurs

Ireland

Topic

Social Enterprise

Ireland

Ireland’s first nationwide campaign calls on businesses and the public to support Irish social entreprises by purchasing from them.

The first #BuySocialIRL Week in Ireland aims to inspire businesses and the public to purchase from social enterprises while raising awareness about this sector from the 14th until the 21st of November.

The campaign was launched in Dublin, and there are events planned nationwide with special ‘meet&greet’ sessions in Cork and Galway where participants can network and learn more about social enterprises.

The Irish Social Enterprise Network (ISEN) coordinates the event with support from the Irish Government, highlighting the various benefits of integrating social enterprises into the supply chain, including invigorating local communities.

“If you purchase from a social enterprise, you are helping employ people that might not have had a job otherwise, you are supporting local community initiatives and directly impacting people's lives,”

said Chris MM Gordon, CEO of ISEN, at the launch event.

He explained further that ‘social enterprises are businesses for good’ and selling products and services means they can reinvest their profits into communities.

Chris MM Gordon, CEO of Irish Social Enterprise Network opened a 'Meet&Greet' event in Cork as part of the #BuySocialIRL Week campaign. Image: BuySocial.ie

The slogan of the campaign ‘Do Good. Spend Well. Buy Social.’ also reflects on the main goal of this initiative.

Gordon added:

“Through this #BuySocialIRL week, all we ask is that you consider buying something from a social enterprise.”

Besides the one-week campaign, the public and business leaders are invited to visit the BuySocial.ie online directory that lists Irish social enterprises providing products and services.

Siel Bleu is one of the Irish social enterprises joining the #BuySocialIRL Week. Image: BuySocial.ie

The website features a wide range of options for anyone interested in supporting organisations such as Mug Shot Coffee, creating jobs for people with prison or probation experience or Siel Bleu, which helps the elderly and people living with disabilities to transform lives through exercise.

Visitors can browse and find authentic offers, including Ireland's first social enterprise design store, We Make Good or Brigit’s Garden, a place where people of all ages can connect with nature, among others.

The #BuySocialIRL is supported by the Department of Rural and Community Development, the Dormant Accounts Fund and Pobal, which works on behalf of the Government to support communities and local agencies toward achieving social inclusion and development.

The event’s main organiser is the Irish Social Enterprise Network, the National Body for Social Enterprise in Ireland, active in advocacy, education and facilitating networking.

Headline Image: BuySocial.ie

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November 2022

Creating a powerful unified voice of impact-driven leaders

Anonymous — Thu, 13 Jan 2022 08:03:47 +0000

Creating a powerful unified voice of impact-driven leaders

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Social Economy

Social Entrepreneurship

Topic

"I see most often that social innovators are ordinary people brave enough to do extraordinary things." Fireside chat with Suzanne Wisse-Huiskes, CEO of Euclid Network

"During my years living in Nigeria, I have learned that even if entrepreneurs have great ideas, they need to have a supportive ecosystem to flourish. They cannot operate in a vacuum simply because they rely on other systems, like legislation, place of sales, and even research.

At Euclid Network, the European Network for social enterprises and impact-driven leaders, we work with the front runners in the social enterprise space in Europe. Yet, we still need to build up and strengthen an ecosystem that represents them and changes the environment where they operate.

In many ways, social enterprises are raising the bar for creating innovative solutions that have a positive impact.

They have the power to transform industries and inspire change in various ways. I see most often that social innovators are ordinary people brave enough to do extraordinary things. They are taking the energy to work hard for a long time, usually at least five years from the idea phase, before they can see the actual impact of their work.

To get through challenges, social entrepreneurs need to be persistent, resilient and creative, and I think what they teach us is that every business has the power to change the world if they want to.

In order to do that, they definitely need every support they can get along the way. That is where I see the relevance of our work through our community with members based in 21 European countries, including social enterprise support organisations like incubators, national networks, research centres, and universities.

Top 100 Women in social enterprise - initiative of the Euclid Network

A great project that highlights the power of collaboration is the ‘Top 100 Women in social enterprise’ initiative. We launched it in 2021 to celebrate female social entrepreneurs and put their journey and achievements in the spotlight while inspiring and connecting them.

We have two categories for application: Social Entrepreneur and Social Innovator.

We had little funding for this campaign but felt the need to emphasise the work of these fantastic women. We ended up with a project that all my team loved from start to finish and accomplished more through collaboration than we could have imagined.

For me, this was such an amazing experience discovering and sharing so many impact stories. It has also proved not to underestimate the power we all have to challenge and change the status quo we live in.

The call for nominations is open for 2022 as we aim to expand the reach of inspirational stories of female changemakers.

Social enterprises are setting an example for other mainstream enterprises that things can be done differently. They also provide new business models that were not there before, offering alternative products and services to consumers with a unique value proposition.

For instance, if we look at sustainable fashion, there is a lot of learning there that corporates could take on or further explore to set new standards for doing business. For a long time, we have believed that consumers can make their own choices, and once there is a more sustainable product or service, they will ultimately choose that.

But it is not that simple, given the overload of information and the fact that these goods are still more expensive than the non-sustainable products. Now we can see the role of corporations through their supply chains and also the importance of having supportive legislation.

However, the lack of awareness is precisely one of the main barriers to changing business as usual, and that is one of our key focus areas. There are still many misleading assumptions around social entrepreneurship, and our job includes eliminating these assumptions and making sure that we have clear communication towards different stakeholders.

When we talk about social enterprise, we actually speak about many different shapes and sizes and even legal forms depending on the countries we are looking at. So what we rather talk about is their work, activities, and impacts.

One example of why representation is so critical became visible when governments worked on action plans for COVID recovery. Social enterprises were left out of these plans for simple reasons. Underrepresentation and the absence of clear legal structures to identifying social enterprises are not helping when it comes to high-level decision-making.

This is where we need to work hard for better recognition and creating a powerful unified voice that cannot be ignored. A few important and imminent opportunities would include better support from governments; more visibility for the sector; a better understanding of the ‘impact first’ social enterprise business model versus the traditional business model where financial returns come before social and environmental impact; a more supportive legal and policy environment; more aligned funding instruments.

That is what we want to do at Euclid Network, and that is what we are fighting to create more opportunities and allocate more available funding for this sector.

I think we need to step over our own shadows as we operate in a tiny bubble and reach out to stakeholders who could help us. Putting aside differences is part of the process, and honestly, we simply do not have the time to bicker amongst ourselves.

We have a bigger fish to fry, which is unlocking the economic potential of social enterprises.

I trust that our work can activate stakeholders to work for common goals and not just talk about leading the change or creating change but actually doing it. When I see my team at work putting their hearts into our mission and collaborating with our partners, it makes me believe that we can turn things around as long as we stick together."

...

Read the full interview with more insights in the Winter 2021/22 issue of the Profit with Purpose Magazine >>

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January 2022

Social Innovators in Dublin received €50,000 funding to realise greater impact

Anonymous — Tue, 17 Nov 2020 13:31:39 +0000

Social Innovators in Dublin received €50,000 funding to realise greater impact

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Five social innovation projects received significant funding in Dublin to bring more benefits to communities and economy

The annual Dublin City Social Enterprise Awards 2020 took place in early November, as a fully online ceremony in line with the Irish government Covid-restrictions.

At the ceremony, five awardees received funding from a total pool of €50,000 along with supports which will assist their social enterprises in achieving a greater impact among the individuals and communities that they serve.

Dublin City Social Enterprise Awards 2020

The Lord Mayor of Dublin, Hazel Chu delivered the keynote address in which she praised the awardees:

“This year’s Dublin City Social Enterprise awardees are actively and innovatively working to address inadequacies, contradictions and underlying issues within our city.

They are delivering change, progress and hope to individuals and communities while also bringing about economic, community and policy benefits.”

The social challenges that the awardees are seeking to address include: diversity, social inclusion, disability, unemployment, mental health, family support, old-age care, education and sustainability.

This year’s Dublin City Social Enterprise awardees:

Outhouse, the LGBT Community Resource Centre.
The Open Doors Initiative provides opportunities to some of the marginalised members of the society.
MyMind has created a unique movement for community-based mental health services that work towards giving every person in Ireland equal access to mental health support early, affordably, directly, without stigma or delay.
The Great Care Co-op is Ireland's first ever carer-owned cooperative in home care.
ReCreate Ireland is making art materials and educational supplies affordable and accessible to every sector of the community for all kinds of creative purposes.

Chair of the Dublin City Social Enterprise Committee and MC of the ceremony, Mary Mac Sweeney congratulated the awardees.

She highlighted the importance of raising awareness of both the awardees and social enterprises in general. ‘It is so important that we collectively promote the significant impact that social enterprises deliver in local communities and economies. The awardees, along with an increasing and dynamic array of social enterprises in Dublin, are creating employment, opportunities and improvements where they are based’. said Mac Sweeney.

“This award is going to allow us to work with fifty Primary Schools within Dublin City.

We are going to deliver fifty boxes packed full of materials directly to these schools, which will be accompanied by some creative consultation sessions.

Schools will also get a full membership until the end of 2021 which will give them the chance to continue being creative with minimal environmental impact.”

Kevin McLoughlin, Head of Marketing and Business Development at Recreate Ireland

says Kevin McLoughlin, Head of Marketing and Business Development at Recreate Ireland, about what this award means to them.

The Dublin City Social Enterprise Awards seeks to celebrate and support innovative social enterprises, highlighting their role in the city’s ecosystem.

Great Care Co-op social enterprise - awardee of Dublin City Social Enterprise Awards 2020

Aoife Smith, co-founder and director of Great Care Co-op social enterprise, explains how this award can open up new opportunities to create value in the community through their work.

“We started off to support disadvantaged migrant women in home care and to create equal opportunities in this sector for all. We see that our way of operating will bring a real systemic change in the home care system in Ireland.

With the financial support of this award, we will be able to set up a hub, which usually takes up to six months to sustain itself. This is going to be crucial for us in getting this model out there.”

The programme and competition aim to increase awareness of the important contribution that social enterprises make to building communities, creating employment and developing the skills of the participants who get involved.

The awards are funded by Dublin City Council and the Department of Rural and Community Development and are managed by Inner City Enterprise.

The funding awarded to social enterprises will allow them to develop their plans, activities further and bring benefits to more individuals and communities.

The scheme was first established in 2015 through a collaboration between Dublin City Council, Inner City Enterprise (ICE) and the Local Enterprise Office (LEO) Dublin City to provide funding to kick-start the creation and development of social enterprises in Dublin City.

This year’s award ceremony was part of a series - which represents Dublin's involvement in the European Commission’s: European Social Economy Regions - 2020 Project. The objective of the project is to build networks of Social Economy and Social Enterprise stakeholders and to raise awareness about the Social Economy at the regional and local level.

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November 2020

A new voice to unite and represent Irish social entrepreneurs

Bronagh Loughlin — Mon, 17 Aug 2020 16:04:48 +0000

A new voice to unite and represent Irish social entrepreneurs

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Social innovators in Ireland are creating a movement to support and unify social enterprises.

A group of social entrepreneurs, key stakeholders and supporters have joined forces to launch a new organisation called the Social Enterprise Republic of Ireland (SERI) which can add a huge amount of value to the Irish social enterprise sector and economy.

SERI aims to become a representative body for the dynamic, evolving and broad social enterprise sector in Ireland.

Social enterprises may come in all shapes and forms but all dedicated to providing innovative and impactful solutions to address the most hard-hitting social challenges. Their core objectives are often to create social, societal or environmental impact. They pursue these objectives by trading in goods and services. In addition, they re-invest any surplus profits into the creation of impact as opposed to the creation of profit for owners or shareholders.

This form of making a profit with purpose could provide a unique opportunity to innovators to start and scale their business ethically and sustainably, creating value on a social and economic level at one go.

The organisation of SERI was born out of passion, knowledge and experience that exists within the sector and a universally recognised need for a united voice. It is formed by some of Ireland’s leading social enterprise practitioners and supporters – including FoodCloud, Social Entrepreneurs Ireland, Rethink Ireland – in a means to champion for the sector and their members both nationally and internationally.

Tammy Darcy, Interim CEO of Social Enterprise Republic of Ireland (SERI)

“There seems to be a consensus so far in our conversations with stakeholders that a big priority is going to be to raise awareness of social enterprise and the impact that we create, but also to collect data, which will help us to share that story,” says Tammy Darcy, Interim CEO of newly formed SERI, also Founder and CEO of multi-award winning social enterprise, The Shona Project.

Their vision for Ireland is to have a world-class environment for social enterprises to thrive.

Therefore their strategy focuses on four pillars:

representation, awareness, support and relationships.

Chair, Fergus Findlay, previous CEO at Barnardos Ireland said, “Social enterprise and its ecosystem have deeps roots in Ireland reaching back to the old Irish tradition of 'Meitheal', where people in rural communities came together to work on a neighbours farm. This embodies the spirit of social enterprise – working as a community to benefit the community socially and economically”.

He adds, “It is clear that social enterprise has evolved to be a thriving sector. What’s next is in our hands. Our team and our members will forge a new beginning for social enterprise and will grow this sector to benefit all our people and communities throughout the Republic of Ireland”.

At this early stage, SERI is open to welcome members on a complimentary basis until January 2021 and have open discussions about how to create a movement that genuinely empowers and inspire social innovators in Ireland.

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August 2020

Accelerating Investment Readiness programme for social enterprises

Szilvia Szabó — Wed, 20 May 2020 10:59:52 +0000

Accelerating Investment Readiness programme for social enterprises

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Topic

Responsible Innovation

International pitch competition and learning programme is open for social enterprises.

With a pitch competition and a blended learning opportunity, the ‘Accelerating Investment Readiness’ (AIR or #AirMOOC) programme offers a unique chance for social enterprises to gain knowledge, build their network and connect with impact investors at one go. This innovative programme is managed by 14 partners from 12 European countries as part of the ‘Finance4SocialChange’ EU Interreg project.

The pitch competition is open only for social innovators from the Danube region. Selected finalists will receive one-on-one mentoring, and each winner will get at least 10,000 € in prize money and exclusive access to an extensive impact investor network. Deadline for online application is 31st of May, 2020.

The learning course is free and open to anyone who wants to learn and get insights on social entrepreneurship, impact investments and scaling a value-driven enterprise. Besides the learnings, it offers a networking opportunity to connect with peers and impact investors from all over Europe.

“We have gathered leading experts in impact investing, purpose-driven business and progressive policy-making to provide inputs for reflection, share their experiences and co-create more sustainable and pro-social organizations,” says Dr Gorgi Krlev, who works at the Centre for Social Investment (CSI) of the University of Heidelberg and lead partner of the AIR project.

The aim of the ‘Accelerating Investment Readiness’ and #AirMOOC learning programme is to facilitate collaboration and knowledge exchange between stakeholders in the social innovation space, such as entrepreneurs, investors and policymakers.

The learning course will be launched on 25th of May and run for 6 weeks and offers six modules focusing on topics at the intersection of social entrepreneurship and impact investing with a specific focus on Measuring and managing Impact, Strategy, Finance, Governance, Scaling and Communication.

Participants in the #AirMOOC can learn practical skills about:

How do you best measure and manage social impact?
How do you build an integrated organizational strategy to create impact?
What is social and impact finance?
How do you master the specific governance features social ventures have?
What are the different pathways to scaling impact? How do you communicate (for) impact?

Experts involved in the #AirMOOC programme as speakers and contributors come from an impressive range of high-profile organizations and institutions, including SEIF Driving Impact Innovation, TEDx, Social Entrepreneurship Network Germany (SEND), the German Ministry of Economy in Baden-Württemberg, ResponsAbility Investments, Impact Collective Social Venture Accelerators, Enactus, PHINEO, European Venture Philanthropy Association (EVPA), Cambridge Social Ventures, Impact Hub, OECD, and Erste Bank.

The Coronavirus pandemic has revealed the need to create ventures that are creating values at the social and ecological level besides contributing to the economy. The support offered by the ‘Accelerating Investment Readiness’ (AIR) programme could empower innovators to join forces and build back a better ecosystem and tackle the devastating impact of the Covid-19.

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May 2020

Partnerships to Drive Positive Change - Euclid Network Impact Summit 2020

Szilvia Szabó — Mon, 20 Jan 2020 16:24:46 +0000

Partnerships to Drive Positive Change - Euclid Network Impact Summit 2020

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Social Innovation

Conference

social entrepreneurs

Date

25th March 2020 - 26th March 2020

Venue

The Hague, The Netherlands

Impact-driven leaders will join forces to address global societal challenges and define innovative, sustainable solutions and partnerships to drive positive change.

Built around the theme “Partnerships to Drive Positive Change”, the Euclid Network Impact Summit 2020 will create and strengthen meaningful connections between impact-driven leaders, representatives of non-profit and social entrepreneurship national alliances, networks and support organisations, social investors, corporate innovators, academics, researchers and policymakers.

The varied agenda will include keynote conversations, masterclasses, workshops, late cafés, site visits to social enterprises, networking drinks, breakfasts, lunches, a dinner, as well as a participant and social enterprise fair.

The event is organised by the Euclid Network, which is a growing European network for organisations that support social entrepreneurs and impact-driven leaders and a strategic partner of the European Commission and an observer to the United Nations Task Force on Social and Solidarity Economy.

Euclid Network Impact Summit 2020

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