Welcome to the first ever edition of fundsforNGOs Scholarship of the Month feature. We’re delighted to be joined by an organization that has been consistently at the forefront of the social entrepreneurship movement, the Schwab Foundation.
Annually, the Foundation select 20-25 Social Entrepreneurs from a pool of applicants through a global “Social Entrepreneur of the Year” competition as well as providing a series of other solutions for its awardees.
We’ve been joined by Katherine Milligan, Deputy Head of the Schwab Foundation, to our answer our questions about the foundation and how they are working to support societal innovation and progress.
What inspired the establishment of the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship?
The Schwab Foundation is a sister organization to the World Economic Forum and was founded fifteen years ago by Klaus Schwab. Mr Schwab experienced for himself how affiliations with influential organizations like Davos enabled him to promote his cause and access support from critical actors in government, media and the private sector.
Since that time social entrepreneurship has advanced leaps and bounds from a relatively unknown and misunderstood term to a genuine movement that is offering new solutions to social and environmental problems around the world.
Today we see social entrepreneurs represented nearly everywhere and they have become critical agents of change. The sector has changed dramatically over the past decade but the fundamentals remain the same dedicated individuals on the ground, testing ideas, designing solutions and providing products and services that are meaningful. We welcome these individuals perspectives and insights and support them to become influential figures and change agents in both the business and development sectors.
Our work over the past fifteen years has been focused on supporting these individuals, to highlight their successes and to socialise these new business concepts. The Foundation actively works to promote organizations that have a direct impact on beneficiary populations, often in low income and low resource environments.
Why did the Foundation choose to support Social Entrepreneurship rather than the traditional donor-NGO model?
For the past nearly two decades we have engaged civil society as well as social entrepreneurship. NGOs and similar organizations are vital actors in communities across the globe who make an invaluable contribution, but the Schwab Foundation concentrates its support on social entrepreneurship because we see near unlimited potential for transformative social change through this new approach.
Social entrepreneurism is close to our heart and we’re convinced that a multi-sectoral approach is necessary to make progress on the critical social and environmental issues that are affecting people around the globe. We’re excited by the proliferation of nimble and flexible approaches that are emerging in both developed and developing countries. Approaches that harness market forces and leverage the best of the business world to achieve a social outcome.
NGOs are hugely important but we believe that they will benefit from this new approach to solving societal problems and creating positive change. One further development that has enormous potential for system change is the increasing collaboration between social enterprises and more traditional NGOs.
What makes the Schwab Foundation different?
We are pleased that there are a number of great organisations in our field who are championing the similar ideas as us, Ashoka, Echoing Green and Skoll all deserve a mention. But we believe we differ in our philosophy and being a smaller organisation we offer a different system of support.
The Schwab Foundation has chosen to focus on late stage models within specific spheres and small communities, which separates us from some of the other social enterprise organisations. An important aim of ours is bringing together social entrepreneurs with leaders of the business and political worlds. Critical stakeholder groups are developed and nurtured to ensure the best outcomes. We also believe worldwide aims like theillennium Development Goals are something we should incorporate and work towards so we often look for projects that aim to deliver targets like this.
Around the world now social enterprises are increasingly becoming part of the big debate, a possible solution to many of the problems that people face and we are pleased to be part of this solution.
What is the Schwab Foundation’s vision for the world?
I look around and am increasingly encouraged when I observe millennials being engaged. This generation is taking a lead role in blurring boundaries across the world; community and multinational as well as transparency and openness are watchwords now. Young people are now the change makers of our global community.
Part of this is the increased responsibility and philanthropy of the corporate world. Corporations are starting to realise that for long term competitiveness they need to be cost effective and this means that sustainability and community engagement have to be at the forefront.
Looking forward to 2030 the foundation see challenges but also a lot of positivity, in the end we hope that all enterprises will be social enterprises. We believe this will be possible by finding creative ways to leverage existing resources across the world, collaborating knowledge and expertise and then transforming how we view markets and economies.
The foundation wants to accelerate this, to push us forward and give young people the opportunity to help their communities and themselves.
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