October 2020 Social Impact Roundup: Betting on Social Enterprises for a Sustainable Future

“COVID-19 has exposed both the vulnerabilities facing low income communities and underlying power imbalances. Social enterprises represent diverse local leaders needed for inclusive change.” Jacqueline Novogratz, founder and CEO of Acumen

Social entrepreneurs have been on the front lines protecting the most vulnerable in the COVID-19 crisis and shaping the transition to a new normal in its aftermath. In October, we’ve been excited to see the social enterprise movement getting the attention and support it deserves from entities around the world.

The World Economic Forum released a report about why social entrepreneurs are needed now more than ever, recognizing their ability to learn, react, and pivot more quickly in a crisis than other actors can. We explored this theme in our S-GRID program as well, hosting Louise Bleach from Desolenator to share lessons from a social enterprise with a successful business model pivot, as well as harvesting advice from successful social entrepreneurs in our network about scaling a for-good business. 

At the SOCAP Virtual Global Impact Summit, leaders explored the role of impact investing in affecting systemic change, and within our network we’ve seen inspiring examples of social enterprises ushering in that change in areas like children’s education, food waste reduction, and access to quality healthcare.

Check out the job openings and announcements from our network below for more ways to get involved and support the social enterprise movement:

Social impact job opportunities 

• Catalyst 2030 is currently hiring for two senior positions, Donor Relations Director and Collaborations Director, based out of Amsterdam.
• THINKMD is currently hiring for two full-time, remote friendly positions: Full Stack Mobile Application Developer and Front End Web Developer UX/UI.
• Our friends at Green Jobs Network recently shared a list of 100 new green, socially impactful, world-positive jobs.
• The Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation is hiring for a Storyteller-In-Residence to join the team based at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. The team is remote-friendly and applicants from across the U.S. are encouraged to apply.
• Splash is hiring for a Chief Operating Officer to join its team based in Seattle, WA.

Upcoming events & new programs

• We’re hosting SAP’s Supplier Diversity Research Fellow for a webinar to help social enterprises learn how to build partnerships with the corporate sector
• Catalyst 2030 is hosting an ongoing Catalysing Change Campaign. See upcoming virtual sessions here. 
• Akamae’s ‘Co-creation with Communities‘ training is now available online. 
• atlasGO recently launched its new crowdfunding platform, Peer to Peer. 
• Mercy Corps recently launched a new initiative, FinX, to reimagine the financial system with the world’s most vulnerable at the center of its design.

Congratulations to….

Green Bio Energy Ltd. for becoming a Yunus Social Business portfolio company.

Esoko CEO, Dr. Daniel Asare-Kyei for receiving the Schwab Foundation Innovator of the Year Award for 2020.

ARED for being selected as a finalist in the Africa 50 Innovation Challenge for 2020.

BEMPU Health for winning the Maharashtra State Innovation Society Award for its signature product, the ApneBoot. With the award money, BEMPU Health will be able to deploy its products to fight infant mortality in the NICUs of Maharashtra state. (Editor’s note: Learn more about how BEMPU is leveraging technology to level global inequalities in neonatal health on the blog here.)

Agora Partnerships newly appointed CEO, Cecilia Foxworthy.

A final bit of inspiration

Amidst all of this progress, we still recognize that this has been a tremendously stressful time for many of us. If you’re feeling weighed down by fear and anxiety, here is a final bit of inspiration from neuroscientist Daniel Levitin about how to stay calm when you know you’ll be stressed.