Context/background The i2 SustainIT is a continuation of another project, co-funded by the Erasmus+ programme of the European Union, where 5 out of the 6 partners in this project had been participating in. The project is BASET – Boost Aid for Social Entrepreneurship through Training with the overall objective to foster social entrepreneurship in Europe through elaborating, testing and providing a set of learning and training instruments to a large group of social entrepreneurship trainers/educators. The rationale behind continuing BASET in an enhanced form based on the outputs developed so far is the realisation that such a project focused on social entrepreneurship to provide a higher-scale of impact, will need a more sustainable approach and additional set of instruments to assist educators and investors, in the current project – mentors and investors. Therefore, considering the conclusions made from the so far developed outputs in BASET, the i2 SustainIT focuses on the fact that all target groups need to better communicate with each other and express their needs accordingly, and also that impact investment and sustainability are under-explored topics with significant added value to tackling social and environmental challenges. Objectives The overall goal of the project is to maximise the understanding and transfer of knowledge on impact, impact investment and sustainability to tackle societal and environmental challenges. Project objectives: 1. Create a set of innovative educational tools for mentors and investors to enhance theirs skills and know-how to better support social entrepreneurs in their impact journeys in the incubation phase; 2. Establish an immersive digital incubator platform, with an open access of the knowledge base of the developed tools for impact investors and mentors, while connecting them with the social entrepreneurs and their early stage projects. Profile of participants The participants in the project are the partner organisations and the teams designated to the project as well as the participants in both trainings & international conference, including any focused groups planned that will take place during the project duration. The profiles of the partners complement each other in order to produce superior value for the implementation of the project and achieving the project results. The partnership includes six organisations from four countries: Bulgaria, Greece, Belgium and UK. Activities The following activities are planned: management plan and preparatory work; project execution; monitoring and reporting; evaluation of the results and quality assurance; executing and monitoring of the dissemination activities. Methodology The methodology of i2 SustainIT concentrates on a collaborative cooperation based on the commonly accepted rules, preliminary defined tasks and critical milestones, strict reporting and effective control through project management using online/ cloud platforms. The activities planned in the project follow the classical training cycle for adults: Identify needs; Design programme; Deliver training; Evaluate results. Results Overall, the outcome of the project is a set of tools and resources embracing the impact investment and sustainability ecosystems supporting mentors by training them in the design thinking approach to integrate in their assistance and investors to responsibly invest in social entrepreneurs for maximising social impact. Moreover, the project will provide the basis of mentors, investors and social entrepreneurs to have a virtual space – incubator, connecting all three groups and providing a platform for support as well as for investors to search for a pipeline of projects creating social impact. The project will produce 4 outputs: O1 – Impact Measurement Guidelines (IMGuide); O2 – Design Thinking for Impact Incubation Toolkit (DTi2 Toolkit); O3 – Impact Investment & Sustainability Handbook (i2 Sustain Handbook); O4 – Digital Impact Incubator Platform (Di2 Platform). Impact / Longer term benefits Since the project is strongly focused on impact and sustainability, it provides direct positive impact in those dimensions through the the primary target groups nurturing the secondary target group and increasing the investments in social impact, which in the long-term will tackle the challenges we face in the 3 dimensions. Therefore, all the resources created during the project duration will eventually contribute to economic growth, reducing the negative impact on the environment and will foster the development of people, communities and cultures to achieve reasonable quality of life, healthcare and education across the globe. The digital platform that will be created will allow the development of such projects contributing not only to the life of the project after its end but will ensure durability of the project beyond by resolving important for the world issues.
1. Create a set of innovative educational tools for mentors and investors to enhance their skills and know-how to better support social entrepreneurs in the incubation phase 2. Establish an immersive digital incubator platform, with an open access to the knowledge base of the developed tools for impact investors and mentors, while connecting them with the social entrepreneurs and their early stage projects The objectives were achieved through the development of four outputs: O1 – Impact Measurement Guidelines - best practices in impact measurement, various models and information that assist investors in their impact investing journeys O2 – Design Thinking for Impact Incubation Toolkit - a high-impact structured and empathetic model for mentors to embed within their instruments in better supporting social entrepreneurs in developing their ideas at an early stage O3 – Impact Investment & Sustainability Handbook - an extensive overview of the topics of impact investment and sustainability providing comprehensive and structured data on the market of investing in social impact projects O4 – Digital Impact Incubator Platform - a friendly environment for improving the training and mentoring process for acquiring knowledge and skills
The overall goal is to maximise the understanding and knowledge transfer of impact, impact investment and sustainability to tackle societal and environmental challenges. The idea behind it came based on another Erasmus+ project: BASET. Through our research we have concluded: -more in-depth and better organised materials needed on impact investment and sustainability to help impact investors support social enterprises by responsible investments and design thinking approach to social incubation for mentors -the UN SDGs are an ambitious and universal call to action. These present a great opportunity for investors to support this global agenda by investing into high-impact projects that address these critical societal challenges -mentors play an integral role in advising and providing guidance to social entrepreneurs in their social impact journeys, whereas social entrepreneurs are leading this movement and breaking borders to support sustainability via the socio-economic and environmental dimensions -the European Venture Philanthropy Association (EVPA)’s assessment of European Social Finance ecosystems concluded that one of the main limitations of the social enterprise scene in Europe is the lack of investment-ready pipeline.