Social Innovators Resources
Connect and share resources with the leading knowledge platform for social change innovators. Learn from leaders on social entrepreneurship and engage, collaborate and contribute on topics that will help you grow your social enterprise.
With more than 1,000 resources on social entrepreneurship and a variety of topics, regional content and careers in social impact, we are growing the platform to engage and support learning. This platform creates an interactive experience for social entrepreneurs and stakeholders in systems change including governments, donors, academics and private sector leaders. This is achieved through sharing social entrepreneurship concepts, guiding learning opportunities, jobs, online courses and resources on best practices in social innovation.
Topics for the Entrepreneurial Journey
Each social entrepreneur’s journey is unique. There are a lot of different paths that a social entrepreneur can take when launching a venture that is focused on social impact. As you find your path, there are four stages that can help and guide you on your journey.
These four stages are based on the flow of the development of a social venture:
Learn about being a changemaker, understanding social problems from a social entrepreneurial and social innovative perspective
Deep dive into design thinking, identifying the SDGs to pursue, developing a theory of change, creating a social business model
Building relationships with stakeholders, deciding on legal structures, administrative challenges, capacity building and fundraising
Driving social innovation at scale involves shifting dominant culture while updating and evolving social impact measurement strategies
Topics
Be on the lookout for more topics and collaborations for the platform.
Introduction to Social Entrepreneurship
Changemaking
Social Innovation
Theory of Change
Design Thinking
Systems Thinking for Social Change
Stakeholders: Communities, Customers & Partners
Social Business Models
Fundraising for a Social Venture
Sustainable Development Goals
Scaling Social Impact
Legal Structures for Social Ventures
Regional Content
You can explore social innovation resources by regions of the world. We aim to harness the experience of social innovators to work together at local, national and regional levels. The collective action of all regions will result in the acceleration of the SDGs by 2030.
Africa
MENA
North Asia
South Asia
Europe
North America
South America
Australia / Oceania
Collaboration Resources
We believe that by working together in true collaboration, the SDGs will be progressed. Catalyst 2030 emphasises collaborative action. Firstly among social entrepreneurs, and secondly, with other stakeholders including donors/funders, the private sector and governments who are focused on systems change at all levels. Learn more by visiting our collaborative resources page.
Developing an Enabling Environment for Social Entrepreneurs to Flourish
For social entrepreneurs to flourish, developing an enabling environment includes understanding the role of social entrepreneurs. The responsiveness and scale of funding available is key to fueling social entrepreneurial capacity, as are improvements in governmental policies, developing new frameworks and building sustainability practices at the country level. This is important so that governments, bilaterals/multilaterals, and donors also get access to social change innovators and their solutions. Finally, developing an enabling environment includes the role of communities which are central in helping social ventures to achieve their mission.
The need to create an enabling environment comes from the current playing field that heavily favours established large entities, and their approaches to change are not necessarily built upon the knowledge and experience of those close to the issue. Governments, bilaterals/multilaterals, and donors must have access to social change innovators and their solutions.
Learn more about creating an enabling environment, by linking to the Social Change Innovators Enable section.
Social Entrepreneurs
Social Innovation Stories
Systems Learning Series
Case Studies
Books
Governments
Case for Governments to Support Social Ventures
Working with Governments
Policy Change
Advocacy
Donors
Case for Donors to Support Social Ventures
Shifting the Funding Paradigm
Funding Opportunities
Private Sector
Case for Private Sector to support Social Ventures
Business Procurement
Engaging with the Private Sector
Academics
Research on Social Enterprise
Academic Resources
Course Models and Syllabi
Share your Resources
We would love you to share your own social innovation resources, articles, videos or websites to increase social entrepreneurs’ learning. Register on the website to upload your own learnings of regional or global best practices.