At last month’s Euclid Summit in The Hague we were pretty chuffed to host social impact people – entrepreneurs, policymakers, educators, advisers, researchers and more – from more than 20 countries.
Even better, we managed to persuade some of them to share their expertise in a slightly more structured way, as part of our “masterclass” programme for social entrepreneurs.
We got some great feedback on these masterclasses, so we’ve gathered some snippets of wisdom from two of our experts (we didn’t get the chance to interview all ten workshop leaders, much as we’d have liked to…).
Here’s Darrin from Social Investment Scotland, which created an investment fund in partnership with the supermarket chain Asda, financed by the Government’s 5p charge on plastic bags; the fund has given more than £1 million worth of small loans to date. Watch the video to hear Darrin’s tips for enterprises wanting to work in partnership with investors, and what challenges you’re likely to face – as well as some thoughts from one of his enthusiastic participants.
We also spoke to Clara from Social Enterprise NL (a Euclid Network member), which is developing a five-step “growth path” for impact measurement. This open-source guide will help entrepreneurs to figure out what stage they’re at in measuring their social impact, and what they should do next.
Watch the video to hear more from Clara, as well as one of the participants in the session.
The Euclid Summit also included masterclasses from:
- EY Netherlands: The scale-up roadmap of an impact entrepreneur
- Singa/Waya and FungoBox: Generating profit with purpose
- WR Partnership: The art of selling – master scales to deliver your mission
- ABN AMRO Social Impact Fund: Social investment – more than money
- Erste Group and Triodos banks: Social banking in Europe
- Bertrand Mariaux Avocats: Laws, finance and infrastructure for social enterprise in Luxembourg
- Scottish Government: Government support for social enterprise in Scotland
“Things change. You can agree something at the beginning and it’s very successful… but either legislation or the economic environment changes. And rather than dissolve a partnership: it’s to think: How can you reshape it and continue so that both parties benefit?” – Social Investment Scotland
“Impact measurement doesn’t have to be very complex and expensive… you can start today, even if you’re a small enterprise” – Social Enterprise NL
