Collaborate for Impact project aims to support and develop social entrepreneurship ecosystems in Eastern Partnership countries: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine. In Ukraine, the project is implemented through the cooperation between SILab Ukraine and the European Venture Philanthropy Association, a leading organization in the field of venture philanthropy and social investment in Europe.
The development of social investment will be directly implemented under the brand of the Ukrainian Social Venture Fund, which systematically supports new and already existing social enterprises.
The project will distribute € 300,000 to financially support social businesses. Such funding will stimulate the creation of new Ukrainian enterprises and the development of existing ones, which are based on the achievement of social and environmental changes. Separate focus will be paid to increasing the number of impact investors in Ukraine.
"EVPA's extensive experience in ecosystem building in Western and Central Eastern Europe, and the deep network and know-how we can bring to the table, will help mobilize social investments, ultimately leading to a more sustainable and inclusive society", says EVPA CEO Roberta Bosurgi.
"The European Union is allocating more than € 300,000 to support the social entrepreneurship development in Ukraine. And it's very inspiring. However, we believe that Ukrainian investors should also take responsibility for the development of the social economy sector in our country. Therefore, we hope that within five years we, as a project, will be able to attract at least half of the mentioned sum from local private and business investors" - SILab Ukraine, Chairman of the Board, Anna Gulevska-Chernysh.