Social enterprises do not operate in isolation.
Behind thriving social enterprise ecosystems are organisations that connect people, build capacity,represent shared interests, facilitate collaboration and help create the conditions in which social innovation can flourish. These Social Enterprise Support Organisations (SESOs) are a critical part of the infrastructure of the social economy, yet their own sustainability is often shaped by the same changing
funding, policy and market conditions they help others navigate.
As part of SESO Connect, Euclid Network is speaking with support organisations across Europe to better understand how they are adapting to these changes and what lessons can be shared across the sector.
In one of these conversations, we spoke with Jonas Nipkow, Project Lead of Social Economy Berlin and, his colleague, Jessamine Davis, Policy Co-Lead at Social Entrepreneurship Netzwerk Deutschland (SEND), about SEND’s evolution, the changing environment around social enterprise support and what it takes to build a resilient organisation.
When the environment changes, support organisations change too
Over the past five years, SEND has experienced significant shifts in its external environment.
The COVID-19 pandemic initially created opportunities for political mobilisation. During the 2021 German elections, SEND was able to mobilise members around coordinated online advocacy and engagement with policymakers.
The political environment subsequently became more supportive of social entrepreneurship, including through Germany’s National Strategy for Social Entrepreneurship in 2023.
But that environment has since changed.
The organisation is now navigating a more challenging funding landscape alongside shifts in political priorities and wider changes in the social and economic context. At the same time, many organisations in SEND’s membership have experienced financial pressure themselves.
For support organisations, these changes are interconnected.
As Jessamine explains, changes in political priorities can influence funding availability, while shifts in the wider societal climate can affect demand for sustainable products and services. These developments ultimately feed back into the organisations that support and represent the social economy.
Moving from growth to strategic focus
One of the most significant changes for SEND has been a move away from rapid project-driven growth towards a more focused and sustainable organisational model.
In previous years, project funding enabled the organisation to expand its team and take on a wide range of initiatives. While this created significant opportunities and increased SEND’s capacity and visibility, it also created dependencies on temporary funding and project cycles.
Today, SEND is becoming more selective.
Rather than pursuing every available project, the organisation is asking whether an opportunity fits its strategic goals and contributes to its core purpose.
This shift has also involved reassessing member needs, strengthening governance and maintaining closer connections with the organisations SEND represents.
As Jonas puts it, the organisation is going “back to the roots” and focusing more clearly on its advocacy role.
This does not mean that project-based work has no value. Rather, the experience has highlighted the importance of ensuring that funding follows strategy, rather than strategy following funding.
The importance of organisational autonomy
One of the strongest messages from the interview was the importance of autonomy.
We need to protect our autonomy… that we can do the work in line with our strategy and not meet someone else’s agenda.
For SESOs involved in advocacy and representation, this question is particularly important.
Support organisations often work across multiple parts of an ecosystem, connecting social enterprises with policymakers, funders, investors, researchers and other stakeholders. Their ability to represent the interests of their members depends partly on having the independence to identify priorities based on what their communities need.
Financial sustainability, therefore, is not simply an internal organisational concern.
It can directly influence a SESO’s ability to fulfil its wider ecosystem role.
Building relationships beyond individual champions
Another lesson from SEND’s experience concerns political relationships.
Maintaining connections across political parties and different fields has helped the organisation remain engaged as political circumstances have changed. But Jonas also reflects that there is always room to diversify these relationships further.
For organisations working on system-level change, resilience cannot depend on a small number of individual champions.
Broadening networks and building relationships across different political and institutional contexts can help support organisations navigate changes in leadership, priorities and policy direction.
This is an important reminder that relationships themselves are part of organisational infrastructure.
From short-term projects to long-term partnerships
The changing funding environment has also reinforced the value of longer-term partnerships.
As competition for public and philanthropic funding increases, project funding can become increasingly difficult to rely on as the sole basis for organisational sustainability. Temporary contracts and project-based teams can also create uncertainty for staff and organisations.
SEND is therefore looking towards partnerships with funders and foundations that understand and support its longer-term mission.
As Jessamine explains:
You also need partners that are going to fund you long term and believe in the structural work that you’re doing all of the time.
This distinction is important.
Ecosystem building is rarely a linear process with a clear beginning and end. Advocacy, relationship building, community development and systems change require continued investment, including during periods when the results may not be immediately visible.
Funding the strategy, not chasing the funding
Perhaps the clearest lesson from the conversation is the importance of strategic alignment. SEND’s experience demonstrates that organisational growth can be valuable and can create greater capacity to serve a community. But growth also needs to be connected to a clear understanding of the organisation’s purpose and the role it wants to play in the ecosystem.
For Jessamine, the lesson is straightforward:
Make sure you have strategic goals and then find the funding that helps you reach these goals and don’t chase the money.
This does not mean ignoring funding opportunities. It means evaluating them through the lens of organisational purpose.
Which opportunities strengthen the organisation’s long-term strategy?
Which partnerships support its independence?
Which projects create meaningful value for members and the wider ecosystem?
And which activities risk pulling capacity away from the organisation’s core role?
These are questions that many SESOs across Europe are likely to recognise.
Why this matters beyond individual organisations
The experience of SEND Germany illustrates a wider point at the heart of SESO Connect.
SESOs do not exist in a vacuum. Their development is intrinsically connected to the ecosystems in which they operate.
Funding architectures, policy environments, market conditions and relationships with other stakeholders can all influence whether a support organisation is able to develop, maintain its capacity or move into a period of decline.
At the same time, SESOs themselves influence those ecosystems through advocacy, capacity building, partnerships, knowledge sharing and community building.
The relationship is therefore reciprocal: SESOs shape their ecosystems, while ecosystems shape SESOs.
Understanding this relationship is essential if we want to strengthen the social economy over the long term.
Building the bridge builders
The lessons from SEND Germany reinforce a central message of SESO Connect:
Strong social economies need strong support organisations.
Building resilient SESOs is not only about improving internal organisational capacity. It also means creating the external conditions that allow them to fulfil their role, including sustainable funding, supportive policy environments, diverse partnerships and space for independent advocacy.
Through SESO Connect, Euclid Network is bringing these experiences together to create opportunities for shared learning among support organisations.
The goal is not to replicate one organisation’s model. It is to understand the choices, adaptations and lessons that can help others reflect on their own context.
Because if SESOs are the bridge builders of the social economy, we also need to pay attention to whether the bridges themselves are strong enough to carry the system forward.
Follow SESO Connect as we continue sharing insights from support organisations across Europe.
