Programs

Our programs have evolved over time to respond to the needs of social entrepreneurs working in diverse circumstances. We continue to tailor our programs to fit the contexts within which we work and refine them based on the impact results we collect.

Thematic Areas

We envision a world where all children and youth reach their full potential. To achieve this vision, we have an ambitious and highly focused plan to invest in social entrepreneurs tackling some of the worlds’ greatest challenges across three thematic areas: Reduced Poverty, Reduced Inequality, and Climate Change.

Our thematic areas align with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Reduced Poverty

We employ a holistic approach to tackling poverty by investing in social entrepreneurs whose solutions address child poverty now and increase the likelihood that cycles of poverty will be broken in the future. These include social enterprises that drive competitiveness in the job market, as well those who improve access to quality healthcare and education.

Reduced Inequality

Sexism, racism, discrimination based on sexual orientation, religion or ability — these are just some of the inequalities that impact children and youth and can threaten their chances of reaching their full potential in life. This is why we focus on vulnerable groups. We back social entrepreneurs working with children and youth most affected by inequality,

Increased Climate Resilience

Children and youth, the group least responsible for climate change, are already the group most disproportionately impacted by its effects. Thus, our climate resilience stream supports social entrepreneurs focused on increasing climate knowledge, engagement and participation.

Our Programs

Current Completed

The Nordic countries

Poverty, Inequality

Improving mental wellbeing for emerging adults Current

We empower scalable and impactful solutions in mental wellbeing for emerging adults. Next in Mind is co-founded by Reach for Change, The Inner Foundation, and the Tim Bergling Foundation as a response to the rising mental health challenges of emerging adults in the Nordics.

Sweden

Poverty, Inequality

Strengthening social enterprises focusing on inclusion and diversity Current

Reach for Change incubator program in Sweden aims to help social entrepreneurs further develop and build their organizations/businesses with the purpose of making life better for as many youths and children as possible. Typically the program works with ten entrepreneurs at a time offering capacity development, connections and publicity opportunities among many things.

Ethiopia

Poverty, Inequality

An acceleration program designed to bridge the education gap for underserved young people in Ethiopia Current

Within this 3-year catalytic program we will support 3 cohorts, each comprising 12 growth-stage enterprises with tech-enabled solutions designed to increase access to inclusive learning opportunities for children and young people in Ethiopia to scale their impact.

Global

Poverty, Inequality, Climate change

Gathering doer and thinkers to discuss and solve pressing social issues Current

Partnering for Change started as an initiative in 2018 in Stockholm, Sweden to gather doers and thinkers from different sectors to discuss and share insights and inspiration about how to work together to solve pressing social issues. Since then we have arranged Partnering for Change events in several of our markets and in different formats.

Ethiopia

Poverty, Inequality, Climate change

A catalytic program supporting the growth of waste management and circular enterprises in Ethiopia Current

A 3-year program consisting of two main components: the Green Business Incubator and the Green Innovation Lab. The program aims to develop an ecosystem that can support the growth of waste management and circular enterprises. Each component has specific focus areas and delivery approaches.

Central Europe, Eastern Europe

Poverty, Inequality

Scaling of social entrepreneurs focused on green & digital transition Current

A collaborative effort led by Reach for Change and Social Impact Award, is providing capacity building and scaling support to impact entrepreneurs across Central and Eastern Europe, while at the same time mainstreaming the topic amongst young people.

Europe

Poverty, Inequality, Climate change

Procurement for people and planet Current

The Buy Social Europe B2B project is part of a global movement, that revolves around a strong transnational dimension, built on top of an equally strong local/national focus on sustainable social procurement. This project brings social procurement in Europe to the next level, empowering mainstream and social enterprises to build sustainable trade partnerships for greater impact.

Latvia, Finland

Poverty, Inequality

Engaging young people into social entrepreneurship Current

The project is one of the first of its kind to focus on social entrepreneurship as a means of empowering young people. The aim of the project is to prepare and pilot a unique cross-border training program for disadvantaged youth that will inspire and support them to become social entrepreneurs. The target group of the project is disadvantaged young people under the age of 25 in Finland and Latvia, including NEETs, migrants, refugees, young people from rural areas and suburbs.

The Nordic countries

Poverty, Inequality, Climate change

Strengthening the social economy Current

The IBESI project, spanning from 2023 to 2025, aims to strengthen the social economy of the Baltic States by integrating social innovation actors with existing entrepreneurship ecosystems and providing social entrepreneurs in the Baltic States the skills needed for integrating successful, socially accountable business practices.

Ethiopia

Inequality

Amplifying the voices of female entrepreneurs Completed

A collaborative project with one of the award-winning radio shows in Ethiopia. Within the project 5 interviews with notable women within the business/social sector in Ethiopia will be broadcasted, inspiring women and girls in urban and rural areas to pursue an entrepreneurial career.

Sweden, The Baltic states

Inequality

Engaging peer learning between social entrepreneurs Completed

Funded by the Swedish Institute, the Baltic Sea Impact Network is a pilot unique transnational network for peer learning between 30 social entrepreneurs from Sweden, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. The aim is to help the network's members learn new skills, connect with like-minded peers from neighbouring countries and increase the access of social entrepreneurs to relevant stakeholders.

Ghana

Inequality

Turning up the volume on the EdTech innovators Completed

Edupreneur Talks is a podcast series turning up the volume on the EdTech innovators, solving some of the most pressing educational challenges in Ghana. Together with the Jacobs Foundation, we'll introduce you to 10 brave edupreneurs from Ghana, part of our joint Scaling Readiness Program. We’ll dive deeper into their entrepreneurial journeys and the insights they’ve gathered along the way.

Ghana

Inequality

Preparing ed-tech social entrepreneurs to scale Completed

A capacity development project for social entrepreneurs focused on improving educational outcomes for children and youth. The project will help the social entrepreneurs to improve and gather further evidence on the effectiveness of their solutions and to prepare to scale their interventions.

Latvia, Ukraine

Inequality

Strengthening the ecosystem's ability to measure and manage impact Completed

In the project “Strengthening Impact Measurement within Civil Society Organisations”, Reach for Change works together with the independent civil society organizations: Civic Alliance Latvia (CAL), and Social Economy Ukraine (SEU) to strengthen the ecosystem's ability to measure and manage their impact. The project is funded by the Nordic Council and will be ongoing until February 2024.

While most NGOs and CSOs are aware of the importance of impact measurement, the barrier to creating replicable and sustainable structures/toolkits or hiring consultants to accomplish this is much too high and/or expensive. Other priorities, such as the needs of their beneficiaries or finding funding, often take a higher priority within the organization, making it difficult to sustain quality impact measuring. This is problematic because not only does it keep an NGO from developing better and more relevant programs for their beneficiaries, but it also becomes increasingly more difficult to scale their programs without proof that the solutions themselves work. Keeping many vital solutions from scaling and reaching more beneficiaries in their target groups, as well as attracting more and larger investments. In the project “Strengthening Impact Measurement within Civil Society Organisations”, Reach for Change works together with the independent civil society organizations; Civic Alliance Latvia (CAL), and Social Economy Ukraine (SEU) to strengthen the ecosystem's ability to measure and manage their impact. The project is funded by the Nordic Council and will be ongoing until February 2024. The project will consist of two modules; Module 1 will focus on training CAL and SEU in impact measurement tools and toolkits. The first module will focus on; Problem analysis using: The Problem Tree Method, solution description, and mapping of the target group. This is followed by developing an impact results chain, indicator selection, developing a plan for data collection, and qualitative and quantitative tools for impact measurement. In Module 2, we will focus on a “train the trainers” approach and capacity-build CAL and SEU on how to train their member organizations to use the toolkits and share knowledge. The activities will explore ways to hold training for their members in impact measurement, and timelines, as well as, how NGOs can communicate their impact to their beneficiaries, partners, funders, and the public.

Sweden, Bulgaria

Inequality

Promoting social innovation and cross-collaboration Completed

A European collaborative project aiming at promoting social innovation and cross-collaboration across Europe. The goal of the project is to establish a sustainable and responsive National Competence Centers for Social Innovation engaging knowledge transfer, networking and synergies in the ecosystem.

Latvia

Strengthening the social entrepreneurship ecosystem Completed

Reach for Change Latvia has been chosen by the Latvian Ministry of Welfare as one of the partners in a large-scale cycle of social entrepreneurship activities under the name "Developing social entrepreneurship together!", financed by the European Social Fund.

Bulgaria

Poverty, Inequality

Enhancing the ecosystem for early-growth social entrepreneurs Completed

A cross-sectoral project which aims at boosting the development of the finance market for social enterprises in Bulgaria.

Bulgaria

Poverty, Inequality

Preventing poverty and social exclusion Completed

Open the Circle is a multi-sectoral coalition focusing on preventing poverty and social exclusion through local social entrepreneurs. With the Scaling Readiness program, which is part of the initiative, we supported two established social enterprises in order to unleash their potential to scale their social organizations.

Programs in focus

To amplify our impact and drive sustainable positive social change, we currently deliver two program streams based on our theory of change: capacity development and ecosystem development.

Explore below to learn more about each program's unique focus, objectives, and impact in driving positive change.

Capacity development - beating the odds

Through these projects we target social entrepreneurs on different stages of development (from concept to growth stage) to develop effective, sustainable, and scalable solutions. We offer them capacity development support to strengthen three areas (Effective solution, Financial sustainability, Leadership, team and operations), financial support to help them develop and deliver their solution and network to create opportunities for new learnings, partnerships, and funding.

We have three distinct capacity development programs for local social entrepreneurs, each targeting a different stage of development:

Innovation labs: Concept to early Proof of Concept stage
We provide technical and, if relevant, financial support for concept stage social entrepreneurs to further develop their concept and test, refine and validate a minimal viable product in order to pilot their solution and become ready for next investment.
Incubators: early Proof of Concept to Early Growth stage
We offer technical and, if relevant, financial support for proof of concept stage social entrepreneurs to enable them to prove that their solution has the intended social impact and that it is embedded in a financially sustainable business model
Scaling readiness: Early Growth to Growth stage
We provide technical and financial support for social entrepreneurs at early growth stage and high ambition to scale, to enable them to identify a viable model to scale their impact (impact scaling strategy), and to develop a plan for a scaling pilot.

Each program is based on three pillars of support:

Capacity development. We offer capacity development support focused on three development areas: Effective solution, Financial sustainability, Leadership, team, and operations. This is delivered through a mix of individual strategic planning, coaching, mentorship, peer learning and group sessions.
Financial support. Access to appropriate funding at different stages remains one of the biggest barriers to social entrepreneurs as they develop their solutions and bring them to scale. We offer selected social entrepreneurs financial support to help them develop and deliver their solutions and to strengthen the capacity and capabilities of their team.
Network. Having a strong network and gaining access to the right people and opportunities at the right time is one of the most crucial success factors for any organization. With so much competition and limited time, cultivating such a network can be tough, especially for early stage organizations without much of a track record. We connect our social entrepreneurs to local and international networks to create opportunities for new learnings, partnerships, and funding.

To support us achieving our vision, we have also started to run two different capacity development programs to promote entrepreneurship and foster entrepreneurial mindset and skills:

Entrepreneurship Boot Camp. We provide training for youth (e.g. University and TVET students) and women to develop an entrepreneurial mindset, knowledge and skills that they need to start and grow a business.
Women and Youth Social and Economic Empowerment. We provide training and technical support to women and youth entrepreneurs to gain skills and knowledge to develop, refine and start or run a business idea and to gain access to funding.

Both programs are focused on the goal of job creation and improving livelihoods or support entrepreneurship in the green economy.

Ecosystem development - improving the odds

Successfully growing or scaling a solution is almost impossible if you are working in a fragmented ecosystem. In order to scale, good solutions will need support from a variety of actors in the public, private and/or non-profit sectors. We work to establish supportive local ecosystems for social entrepreneurs to increase their chances of success.

How we create change

Our programs have evolved over time to respond to the needs of social entrepreneurs working in diverse circumstances. We continue to tailor our programs to fit the contexts within which we work and refine them based on the impact results we collect.

Thematic Areas

Reduced Poverty

Reduced Inequality

Increased Climate Resilience

Our Programs

Improving mental wellbeing for emerging adults Current

Strengthening social enterprises focusing on inclusion and diversity Current

An acceleration program designed to bridge the education gap for underserved young people in Ethiopia Current

Gathering doer and thinkers to discuss and solve pressing social issues Current

A catalytic program supporting the growth of waste management and circular enterprises in Ethiopia Current

Scaling of social entrepreneurs focused on green & digital transition Current

Procurement for people and planet Current

Engaging young people into social entrepreneurship Current

Strengthening the social economy Current

Amplifying the voices of female entrepreneurs Completed

Engaging peer learning between social entrepreneurs Completed

Turning up the volume on the EdTech innovators Completed

Preparing ed-tech social entrepreneurs to scale Completed

Strengthening the ecosystem's ability to measure and manage impact Completed

Promoting social innovation and cross-collaboration Completed

Strengthening the social entrepreneurship ecosystem Completed

Enhancing the ecosystem for early-growth social entrepreneurs Completed

Preventing poverty and social exclusion Completed

Programs in focus

Capacity development - beating the odds

Ecosystem development - improving the odds