Social entrepreneurs are society’s problem solvers. They are people with courage, insight and ambition to put forward a solution to a social problem, and act on it. Broader than social enterprise, we see social entrepreneurs as people who are driving new approaches to solving social problems, regardless of the business model being used. Social entrepreneurs are mission driven rather than profit driven.

Our mission is to harness the cumulative power of people to accelerate social change. We do this through our programmes, direct funding, and our incredible community of alumni, funders, and sector leaders.

Our work is underpinned by our three core beliefs:

• The potential of people to create lasting change,
• The power of human-first relationships
• The force of community to accelerate impact

Drawing on our 17 years of experience of walking the journey with social entrepreneurs, we’ve created this toolkit to help you take the first steps from idea to action.

In the seven sections, we take you from the ideation and research stage through to piloting and sharing your story. We have also tried to demystify the technical and legal elements around setting up an organisation whose mission is to solve a social problem.

We know that the first step of the journey is often the hardest one to take. We support social entrepreneurs from idea stage through to pilot stage, and beyond. If you are looking to take the first step, check out our Spark Toolkit and our Ideas Academy programme.

We also run a follow up programme, the Action Lab, for graduates of the Ideas Academy to support them as they pilot their solution.

Often the initial stages of the social entrepreneur journey demand your passion, creativity and bravery to take those difficult and crucial first steps. However, for those at the Impact Programme stage, Social Entrepreneurs Ireland recognise the need to develop and lean on other strengths such as planning, teamwork, collaboration, bigger picture thinking and decision making.

Ready to expand your impact and take your organisation to the next stage? If your project or organisation is currently operational, having progressed beyond the pilot stage, explore our Impact Programme for support in achieving your goals. Learn more here.

For social entrepreneurs who have developed a scalable model, we help them to develop themselves and their organisations to deliver impact at scale through bespoke financial and non-financial supports. Our Scale Partnerships programme provides bespoke support and investment to social entrepreneurs who have completed a Social Entrepreneurs Ireland programme and are ready to receive further funding and development support to scale and grow their impact.