Social entrepreneurship: how it works and who promotes it in Ukraine

Imagine a world where every business solves not just economic problems but also social problems. In the conditions of global changes, social entrepreneurship can become an effective tool for responding to society's urgent challenges.

Research confirms that society expects businesses to be included in social life and involved in overcoming various problems. With the mission of making social entrepreneurship a catalyst for developing local initiatives for global change, the Platform for Social Change charitable organization works in Ukraine. It is an environment for the development of social entrepreneurship that promotes its development in local communities through education, investment, and mentoring.

How exactly does the Platform for Social Change build social entrepreneurship?

The Platform team has been working since 2015, providing comprehensive support to social entrepreneurs at every stage of their development. From idea to implementation, the Platform contributes to creating stable, growing projects to solve pressing social problems.

The priority tools for this are education and mentoring. The Platform for Social Change focuses on various educational and mentoring programs, depending on the needs of civil society organizations and social entrepreneurs. For this purpose, the organization launched the Academy of Social Entrepreneurship — an online platform where social entrepreneurs, representatives of the public sector, philanthropists, and activists exchange experiences.

"We are very careful about what we offer to our members. We have several educational products that suit different categories of changemakers. The most popular is the Social Entrepreneurship Accelerator — a comprehensive educational program with mentoring and grant support, where participants learn everything from building a business model to legal issues of creating a social enterprise. Last year, we held three such programs, which graduated more than 100 participants," says Solomiia Boyanovych, head of the Platform for Social Change.

In 2023, Platform for Social Change held 11 educational and mentoring programs attended by more than one and a half thousand participants from all over Ukraine. In addition to the Accelerator, a series of webinars on specific topics such as organizational development of CSOs, marketing strategy, team development, and financial and legal issues are actively held. Community building is also important to the organization. Social entrepreneurship is not only a way to support the economy in times of war but also a means of rallying people around common goals, creating new jobs, and providing people with needed services or goods. Thanks to cooperation and joint efforts, stronger, more cohesive communities are created here, ready to overcome challenges and implement positive changes together.

Through comprehensive training programs, investment opportunities, and unwavering support from mentors, the project helps social entrepreneurs not only implement their ideas but also ensure their sustainability and development for many years. This gives them a basis for development, and the entrepreneurs themselves change the world. "We strive for every participant of our programs to feel constant support and mentoring, regardless of the stage of implementation of their project. Therefore, we try to always be close to our graduates. We regularly communicate with entrepreneurs and involve them in various initiatives. It often even happens that our graduates become lecturers for new students of the programs," the Platform for Social Change team shares.

How do international practices help to develop social entrepreneurship in Ukraine?

The Platform for Social Change works closely with international partners. This allows to adopt the best practices and implement them in Ukraine. We try to localize European principles and initiatives. The international partners have a very broad expertise in social entrepreneurship. Because of this, the Platform can help local initiatives become more global and create significant changes.

In addition to partnerships, the Platform collaborates in two international projects — ESIC, which focuses on skills development in the social economy sector in Europe, and GRAINS, which supports sustainable development in the agri-food sector. These initiatives are examples of commitment to international partnerships leading to strengthening the global network of social entrepreneurship. In total, more than 15 European organizations are involved in two projects. Such cooperation creates new opportunities for introducing innovations and jointly solving social challenges in Ukraine. 

Social enterprises can be a community backbone, helping them adapt to rapidly changing living conditions, rebuilding infrastructure, and supporting the most vulnerable. The main thing is to have the support and experience of experts. A platform for social change educates, invests, and supports, and the rest depends on the participants. 

The Platform for Social Change's website provides more information about its work, valid programs, and services.