TWISE: This week in Social Enterprise
Welcome to the latest news and insights from the global social enterprise community.
Events:
AVPN South Asia Summit
What: A two-day summit with the goal of bringing together AVPN’s 100+ members in South Asia, as well as to invite members from across their global network to participate in discourse looking at setting the path for a cohesive development agenda in the South Asian region.
Who: Open to all
Where: Mumbai, India
Date: 19–20 January 2023
Tickets: Complimentary for members, member plus ones US$125, standard US$150
World Business Forum 2023
What: Purpose is the driving force behind all we do as individuals and as organisations. It’s what motivates our teams to achieve their highest potential. It’s the catalyst of innovation and creativity.
Having clarity on our purpose allows us to navigate through the turbulent and often uncharted waters that we are and our organisations are facing today.
Purpose enables us to move from productivity to passion; from automation to self-expression; from individualism to collaboration.
Let’s put purpose at the heart of business.
Who: Any social entrepreneur in Queensland who has a great idea but needs a little help in making their purpose-driven business make an impact.
Where: Sydney, Australia
Date: 11th and 12th October 2023
Tickets: https://www.wobi.com/wbf-sydney/
Catalyst 2030 Catalysing Change Week
What: The ‘world’s largest event’ led by social innovators and entrepreneurs to share knowledge, exchange ideas and accelerate collaborative systems change.
Who: Anyone can join from anywhere worldwide; Catalyst 2030 members are invited to plan in person activities, hybrid events and sessions at a local level and everyone is encouraged to contact other Catalyst 2030 members to co-create and submit sessions on behalf of a collaboration.
Where: Global
Date: 1–5 May 2023
Opportunities:
Global Innovation Fund
The Global Innovation Fund is a non-profit, impact-first investment fund headquartered in London with offices in Washington, D.C. and Nairobi. We invest in the development, rigorous testing, and scaling up of new products, services, business process, or policy reforms that are more cost-effective than current practice and targeted at improving the lives of the world’s poorest people.
Through their grants and risk capital, they support these breakthrough solutions from for-profit firms, non-profit organisations, researchers, and government agencies to maximise their impact and catalyse meaningful change. Because the best ideas for solving some of the world’s most critical development problems can come from anyone, anywhere, we provide an open window to receive innovative ideas and assess whether they are right for GIF investment.
For full details and information on what they offer, click here.
Social Change Central — Check out their latest in funding opportunities
It’s an exciting time for social enterprise in Australia with more than 20,000 social enterprises now operating.
Despite the recent growth and interest in the sector there are several factors holding it back from reaching its full potential as a catalyst for widespread change. One major hurdle is the time consuming effort required to find the ever-increasing number of funding and capacity building opportunities.
The latest opportunities are typically found via closed Facebook groups, Google searches or organisation-specific newsletters. As a result, many of our most eager and promising entrepreneurs don’t find the support they need to get their ideas off the ground. Potentially life changing ideas stay just that — great ideas.
Social enterprises can be a powerful driver of positive change. We believe encouraging increased support for social enterprises and connecting them with available opportunities is a critical step in this process.
Check out the latest opportunities on their website here.
News, Insights & Key Stories:
Change Now
ChangeNOW 2022 is a three-day summit that brings together the most innovative solutions and impactful changemakers tackling our planet’s biggest challenges, to take action, together. ChangeNOW builds bridges between the entrepreneurs, business leaders and policy-makers to accelerate change.
For more details, and to submit your solution, visit here.
What the Law of Gravity Can Teach Us About Capitalism and Social Enterprise
Like gravity, capitalism keeps things rooted — motivating us to learn, create and constantly improve.
A lot of bad things happen because of the Earth’s gravity. A glass falls and smashes. Someone trips and breaks his or her hip. A plane drops out of the sky and crashes into a fiery ball. If we could only cancel gravity, we’d avoid all these tragedies.
In the same way, capitalism is blamed for a lot of ills in our society. Think of all the horrible activities that are spurred on by humans’ endless desire for profit: child sweatshops, exorbitant prices for life-saving medications, unaffordable housing, addictive drugs and pollution to name a few. So great is the list of social dysfunction that some suggest we dump capitalism altogether.
To read the full article, click here.
5 Takeaways From an Entrepreneur’s Profit + Purpose Social Business Model
Sustainable business models and social entrepreneurship have been gaining mass popularity around the world as at least one-third of startups now aim for social good. Prior to this shift, social entrepreneurship was often met with confusion, with blurry lines around profit and social impact. These businesses were often met by skeptics that were concerned that social elements could be a branding ploy to profit off of what appeared to be a good cause.
To read the full article, visit the page here.
