Development of accelerator programme for social entrepreneurs to support the entire ecosystem (PRIBI79)

This project proposal aims to develop an acceleration programme for social entrepreneurs. Such a programme will help social entrepreneurs grow, and further strengthen their positive impact towards sustainability and corporate social responsibility. With this acceleration programme, we want to further consolidate the ecosystem around social entrepreneurs through collaboration between different organisations: social entrepreneurs, 'traditional' entrepreneurs from the for-profit world, knowledge institutions, cities, municipalities and provinces, and other public organisations. The involvement of mainstream entrepreneurs and public organisations provides useful expertise to these entrepreneurs, but can also ensure more social initiatives in public and for-profit organisations. The acceleration programme would consist of five primary activities: - Bootcamps: Design thinking, Supportive Ecosystem Development & Pitching. These multi-day events focus on business model (re)design and network building. If corona measures prevent physical events from taking place, we switch to a virtual meeting. - Mentorship: Guidance, expertise and networks are provided by competent mentors from the business and entrepreneurial world. These "external" mentors are provided by our network, which we have built up over the past six years thanks to the VUB Chair in Social Entrepreneurship. - Individual coaching: Individual coaching provides strategy development, KPIs and builds skills needed for growth. The focus here is on specific themes, such as sales, Human Resources, finance, production and communication. The individual coaching is provided by the VUB Chair for Social Entrepreneurship through 1/ individual meetings and 2/ the use of the crowdsourcing and -funding platform (). and -funding platform (https://platformse.com/) to attract the best possible mentors. - Social Entrepreneurship Challenge: Immersing social entrepreneurs in a series of intensive bootcamps and inspiring mentorship sessions results in a competitive event that aims to put the most innovative solutions in the spotlight at an international level. - Contact with impact investors: The acceleration programme will provide the necessary contact moments with potential impact investors in circular and social economy (via Solifin, Trividend, Lita.co).

Keywords:sociale ondernemers, ecosysteem

Disciplines:Business economics