About us
Country: The Netherlands
The province of Noord-Brabant is the first Dutch government body with an outcomes fund. The point of departure being a societal issue whereby not only financial success or savings are valued, but also the societal impact and sustainable results. The BOF’s methods are based on the social impact bonds (SIBs) funding model: public-private results-based financing. An SIB is a contract whereby private investors fund an approach devised by social entrepreneurs such as, for instance, supervising status holders in their search for work. In t
his way they help increase the societal impact. Once the results have been achieved, the government pays the investors back and pays out their returns.
Our work with social enterprises
In Brabant, we come across examples of social enterprises ranging from circular carpentry to intercultural catering, from the combating of food wastage to the development of new jobs in health care.
We set up several actions to stimulate entrepreneurship with thriving societal impact. Some examples: (1) we set up a service point via the network Sterk.Brabant, at which social initiatives and enterprises will be able to meet, find expertise and share experiences. (2) A relatively easy way of encouraging entrepreneurship is to make use of the products and services of entrepreneurs. Therefore we are experimenting with a procurement approach which is focusing on societal impact via the Buy Social testing ground. (3) By recognising the importance of purposedriven entrepreneurship, measuring its impact and putting social added value first in investment and purchasing policy, governments can offer more space to enterprises with social or societal objectives. That is why we are experimenting with the instrument of impact monitoring in our own provincial programmes and the initiatives in which we are a partner. (4) and last but not least we set up the Brabant Outcomes Fund (BOF): a learning by doing process to find out in practice how public and private financiers can cooperate better and play a role in the scaling of enterprises with societal impact.
