[The 10th Anniversary of Social Enterprise Flow] Walk social entrepreneurship from 0 to 100 with Change Makers – from idea implementation, organization and operation to amplifying influence

In 2022, when the social enterprise flow is 10 years old, with “sustainability” as the main axis, 10 plans are proposed from the aspects of self-exploration, talent cultivation, corporate cooperation, and ecosystem management, as 10 dedicated to Taiwan social gift. We will announce a plan every month, welcome to continue to lock this column, let us become a force to promote social change and move towards sustainable development. Social entrepreneurs (Social Entrepreneurs) must take into account both social mission and business considerations, and often face more diverse and complex challenges. Therefore, according to statistics, the success rate of social entrepreneurship is often much lower than that of general entrepreneurship. In order to assist the fledgling social innovation and entrepreneurship teams to go through the first mile and expand their influence, Social Enterprise Liu launched the first social entrepreneurship incubation service “iLab Incubation Project” in Taiwan in 2014. The strong backing of social entrepreneurs supports more social changes. Having invested in social entrepreneurship for nearly 10 years, the social enterprise stream has also gradually responded to trends, gained insight into the needs of entrepreneurs, and joined hands with public and private sectors to allow resources to play a synergistic role, hoping to more accurately respond to the needs of social innovation organizations with different service content. In the future, we hope to continue to build a resource-rich social network for social innovation teams, and together become a key force in helping Taiwan move towards sustainable development. With the increasing emphasis on the concept of sustainability, the wave of Start-up for Social Good has not subsided in recent years. Many reformers have seen the environmental and social crises of generations, and choose to respond to problems and provide solutions through entrepreneurship. On the road of entrepreneurship, from start-up, operation to expansion, each stage will face different challenges, such as how to develop a good idea that changes social problems into a suitable business model, how to be a competent manager, and how to break through the organization Restrictions on development, expansion of influence, etc. Different from traditional entrepreneurship, social entrepreneurs are usually not driven by personal interests, but driven by social missions. Under the premise of taking into account both business operations and social missions, the success rate of social entrepreneurship is often much lower than that of ordinary entrepreneurship .

Shifa International launched the first social enterprise incubation plan in Taiwan

Feeling that the start-up social entrepreneurial team cannot get appropriate help in market verification, product development, organization and operation, etc., the social enterprise flow model originated from the United Kingdom and is also the world’s largest social entrepreneurship incubation organization UnLtd. In 2014, it launched the first in Taiwan An incubation service focusing on social entrepreneurship “iLab Incubation Program” provides professional courses, strategic counseling, mentor consultation and other services through incubators, accelerators and other mechanisms, and accompanies entrepreneurs with the mission of improving social problems to walk the first mile . “Professional courses have given us a lot of inspiration. We understand that the organization must clearly set up staged strategies and goals at different stages and then achieve them one by one.” Participating teams over the years said, “The instructor gave us a clear sharing of corporate organizational strength and provided us with profound insights. Many insights can be tried in practice.” Some teams also mentioned: “The social enterprise flow iLab is the most helpful for us in the part of communication and matchmaking. Opening up contacts is very important for our team’s competitive advantage.” As of the end of 2021, the iLab Incubation Program has supported more than 200 teams, created more than 400 job opportunities, and served millions of beneficiaries. The total funds raised by the cooperative teams exceeded NT$100 million. (Same scene added: Demo Day #4 of Social Enterprise Flow iLab Incubation Program—Sustainable Convergence: Enterprises and social innovation join hands to create ESG value and sustainable vision )  

Focus on altruistic organizations: Export the spirit of iLab cultivation, and launch cultivation plans for different organizational types

Today, the social influence ecosystem has undergone significant changes: early entrepreneurs are gradually moving to the next stage, and need to graft different resources in order to find key growth drivers. Various social issues also urgently need more effective advocacy mechanisms to encourage individuals with professional or Organizations join the ranks of improving social issues. In order to more accurately respond to the needs of different stages of the organization, social enterprise flow connects more diverse partners, focuses more on different themes and objects, and supports entrepreneurs with social missions from 0 to 100 to amplify their influence. In 2021, in response to the ESG trend, in order to support small and micro enterprises with an organization size of less than 50 people to establish corporate ethics and strengthen their operating physique, Social Enterprise Stream joined hands with Xinyi Housing and Xinyi Cultural Foundation to launch Taiwan’s first ” Entrepreneurship is Going, Ethics needs to be developed—Small and Micro Enterprises Ethics Development Class ” program (referred to as the Ethics Program), assists organizational leaders to implement the spirit of corporate ethics, and then leads the organization to exert social influence. The long-term ethics program takes 3 years as a unit, and through course training, exchange series, experience output, etc., it aims to cultivate students’ cognition, attitude, and skills towards corporate ethics in an all-round way. Participation in the whole program is free, recruiting managers of small and micro enterprises, through this program to strengthen the organization’s operating system, improve corporate governance documents, and then create higher value and magnify social influence. The course content gradually establishes the concept of corporate ethics from elementary to advanced, and conducts a health check for the organization from the three aspects of economy, society, and environment, including economic-oriented social innovation and entrepreneurship 101, the financial management foundation of small and micro enterprises; social-oriented change theory and impact assessment, public welfare reports to promote internal and external communication; environment-oriented sustainable environmental certification practice classes, legal compliance and integrity, etc. In addition, activities such as small gatherings at the beginning of the school year and achievement presentations are arranged to allow students to get to know each other and promote experience exchanges and potential cooperation. The second year of the course has been launched in March 2022, providing more advanced practical courses such as organizational finance, employee training, and brand building. “The course instructor gave homework feedback and helped clarify the current situation of the organization.” Participants gave feedback one after another, “The course helped the company to review and internally reorganize, re-examine the service content and projects, and do more efficient things.” (Same scene added: Entrepreneurship is going, ethics must be required! Directly see the results of the ethics development program ) In the same year, Social Enterprise Flow also observed the plight of non-profit organizations lacking stable funds and cultivating resources, and was limited by the business undertaking and execution capabilities of non-profit organizations, and could not effectively connect with enterprises with resources. With the support of Lisheng, social enterprise flow and living water impact investment adhere to the original intention of supporting social innovation, and jointly create the ” NPO Innovation Growth Accelerator “, looking forward to helping innovative non-profit teams overcome operational development challenges, resource connection and other difficulties. The NPO Innovation Growth Accelerator helps non-profit organizations improve their capabilities and connect multiple resources through a two-stage program. The first stage focuses on the physical improvement of the organization and the core team, laying a solid foundation for the team; the second stage can further cooperate with external resources/funds through the ESG-NPO co-creation platform to create effective and sustainable growth. The accelerator will be launched at the end of 2021, and a total of 3 teams will be recruited. They are LIS, which uses innovative teaching materials to cultivate students’ scientific literacy, Xiaocaoshuwu, which accompanies disadvantaged children to develop their skills, and Skills for U, which promotes vocational education. During the 6-month power-building period, participating organizations need to participate in 5 themed courses, 5 three-on-one strategic counseling, 3 communication activities, 4-6 financial responsibility project meetings, and flexible pre-class assignments Preparation, discussions after lessons and activities, etc.  

Supporting the Deep Cultivation of Issues: Cooperate in series with corporate reward resources to help organizations expand their influence in issue resolution

In addition to the above-mentioned themed incubation programs, which focus on improving the overall operational capabilities of social innovation organizations, many companies also provide grants to support organizations in deepening their issues. For example, the Taiwan Mobile Foundation focuses on technology and local creation, launches the ” Tech The Dreamers Technology‧Dream+ ” project, integrates AppWorks, social enterprise flow and other energies, selects a team through annual recruitment, injects funds, and introduces technology and manpower to provide guidance, through the development of innovative solutions, use technology to help local creation, so that love can be deeply cultivated in the local area. (In the same field, Jiaying: Let the silver-haired people have “zero hunger” physically and mentally! Silver Gate X Taiwan Mobile Foundation, enriching the lives of the elders with technology ) Another example is that UMC pays attention to environmental protection and has set up the ” Green Award “ to support domestic ecological conservation groups. In 2022, the “Green Innovation Award” will be added, and it will be co-organized with Social Enterprise Stream, United Daily News and the United Daily News Cultural Foundation. It is expected to further support green innovation and actively find solutions.

Social innovation is an important force to promote sustainable development

On the road of sustainable development, no one or any department is an outsider. In the public sector, we have seen that the Taiwan government won the Catalyst 2030 Facilitator Award from the international non-profit organization for its connection with social innovation organizations to achieve the sustainable development goals of the United Nations. Affirmative; in the private sector, the Financial Supervisory Commission will release the sustainable development roadmap and ESG evaluation system for listed companies in March 2022, hoping to drive more companies to implement sustainable development. We have observed that in recent years, the government and enterprises have an increasing demand for cooperation between social innovation organizations and social enterprises. This is also reflected in the fact that most of the previous iLab Demo Day activities were attended by CSR departments. In recent years, human resources, procurement, investment More and more participants from different business sectors such as , strategy and so on. Since social enterprise flows into the incubation service, it has always aimed to become the best ally of social entrepreneurs, and is committed to assisting entrepreneurs in formulating development strategies, formulating and implementing action plans, so that more good ideas have the opportunity to grow all the way and connect more resources. , to scale the influence scale from 0 to 100. Having gone through nearly 10 years with social entrepreneurs, Social Enterprise Stream is also celebrating its 10th anniversary. In view of the above trends, in the future, we will not only continue to advocate “social innovation is an important force to promote sustainable development”, but also hope to achieve two goals through various incubation services: the first is to enhance the connection between social innovation organizations and enterprises (Corporate-Ready ) capabilities; the second is to allow more companies to see the breadth and depth of co-creating ESG value with social innovation organizations.