Social entrepreneurs in Eastern Partnership countries and Russia are providing crucial support to communities in need. They are pioneering social impact in this region. But they need support from investors for impact to grow, be sustainable in the long term and increase their impact.
EVPA has launched the results of a survey gathering data from over 180 social entrepreneurs from across the region. The country snapshots give key insights into their needs with regard to long-term financial and organisational sustainability, scaling opportunities, type and size of investments sought for growth and increased social impact.
Key findings
The data shows that most social entrepreneurs in Eastern Partnership countries and Russia seek an investment of below €50,000, mostly to develop infrastructure. In addition, 65% of the social enterprises surveyed look for investment support from social and impact investors to further develop their business model.
This means that investors for impact can provide them with such support to be sustainable and achieve more social impact. In this way, they can also help them overcome the challenges they face as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.
What investors for impact can do
To learn more about the investment needs of social entrepreneurs in the region, investors for impact can do the following:
- Build understanding of the region and its networks by engaging with national and regional players and attending local social impact business clubs that build up the investment community and offer opportunities to invest.
- Invest in support organisations, including their training and capacity-building efforts.
- Become an early investor or co-investor in an existing or developing social purpose organisation in the region.
- Engage social purpose organisations as reliable suppliers in their value chain.