Позитивные изменения. Том 2, № 3 (2022). Positive changes. Volume 2, Issue 3 (2022)

In Russia, there is no special organizational and legal form for social enterprises, no national association of social enterprises, no common marketing platform and no e-commerce platform for goods made by social enterprises. The need for a separate legal form is arguable in our legislative field. Rather, what we lack is a mechanism and opportunity to recognize both commercial and non-profit organizations engaged in income-generating activities as social enterprises. Separate branding of the social enterprises’ products, and setting up special sections on existing online marketplaces to trade their goods is a matter of the future, when such products become more commonplace. The National Association is a thing of the future, too. Meanwhile, regional associations have been created in some parts of the country. The national association can be created “bottom-to-top”, once regional associations get stronger and decide they need to reach a new level, or “top-to-bottom” if one of the social enterprise development institutions takes on the role of “gatherer” and works hard to achieve the goal. Unfortunately, there isn’t a single place in the world with a clear-cut, objective and comprehensive methodology for evaluating the social performance of social enterprises. It should be created using the existing developments.

Besides, a unified mechanism for impact evaluation of social investments is being discussed in Russia but has not yet been developed. “Our Future” Foundation has been working on this problem for a long time; we have implemented an evaluation of those projects that we have helped with interest-free loans. The analysis carried out according to our methodology allows us to say that every ruble invested in the project of social entrepreneurs brings a social impact of 3–7 rubles.

WE WANT TO STAY ABREAST OF MAJOR TRENDS IN IMPACT INVESTING

Our Future” Foundation is one of the first Russian organizations that joined the Global Impact Investing Network, the Asian Venture Philanthropists Network, and the Euclid Network of Civil Society & Social Enterprise Leaders. What do these organizations do and how are they changing the landscape of social entrepreneurship development? What are the benefits of membership in such organizations?

Our Future” Foundation was the first Russian organization to become a GIIN member in 2013. GIIN and similar organizations accumulate information about the activities of their members, development and investment in social entrepreneurship around the world, analyze and organize this information, develop scientific and practical tools that can help create new organizations for impact investing, trying to organize communication between members at regular conferences. Sometimes it is possible to attract impact investment from other countries through such organizations, but this is not commonplace yet. For the most part, the Foundation uses membership in this organization to keep abreast of major trends and developments that are emerging in impact investing.

The Asian Venture Philanthropy Network (AVPN) is a Singapore-based social investor network aimed at building a community of social impact investment projects across Asia.

The Association’s main mission is to increase the flow of financial, human and intellectual capital into the social sector by uniting and empowering major shareholders. It uses such tools as capital pooling, community building, and organizing events to disseminate knowledge and best practices of the practicing network members.

AVPN has more than 600 members from 33 countries. “Our Future” Foundation was the second participating organization from Russia. Most participants are geographically located in Asia, but some come from North America and Europe.

Participation in AVPN provides the following opportunities: access to events organized by AVPN; opportunities to communicate with investors and make joint deals through the Deal Share platform; access to educational materials, case studies, and analytical materials.

The Euclid Network is a European network of leaders in social entrepreneurship and civil society that was founded in Paris in March 2007. It brings together organizations from 31 countries, including representatives of social organizations and associations of social enterprises, universities, non-governmental organizations, social enterprises, and social investors. “Our Future” Foundation became a member of the Euclid Network in 2019.