Social entrepreneurs rely on a diverse ecosystem of funding flows to sustain and scale their work, and public sector institutions play a key role in supporting these social enterprises with the kind of unrestricted and longer-term financial support that systemic social change requires. There is limited awareness though of the types and levels of support to be found in the public sector. A new report from Devex and the Skoll Foundation, Leveraging Public Sector Opportunities: A Guide for Social Entrepreneurs, benchmarks the funding streams of the public sector and provides practical insight and recommendations to advance the initiatives of social entrepreneurs.
The report includes a detailed scorecard of 18 public sector institutions’ engagement and commitment to social enterprises, as well as discussion of the obstacles to seeking public sector funding. Following the scorecard are institution briefs that identify current trends, priority sectors, priority regions, key engagement channels, contact information, and the different types of support available to social enterprises. The final section of the report provides intelligence on seven multi-donor challenge funds that distribute thematic funding most relevant to social entrepreneurs.
Securing funding can be challenging in any sector for a social entrepreneur. This report identifies the most social entrepreneur-friendly donors–and the best ways to work with them. We hope you find this resource useful, and as always, we welcome your feedback below.
