European Social Catalyst Fund

ended

As societies evolve and the challenges they face take on old and new form and expression, it is vital that governments and their partners find ways to best serve their citizens. As governments’ management of and impact on the most vulnerable in society is increasingly in the spotlight, innovation in social services delivery is critically needed. This brings into sharp focus why and how a European Social Catalyst Fund (ESCF) can be a key stimulus factor in the delivery of socially innovative initiatives that have the capacity to scale to make a real impact at national and international levels. This proposal intends to establish the ESCF and is based on practical social innovation experience garnered by the Consortium, working with philanthropy and government to bring about sustainable improvements for service users, across a range of social services. The ESCF is designed to bring together public and private resources in a range of collaborations that focuses on the role that philanthropy and social impact finance can play in working with governments to help re-focus public spending in a more cost-effective direction in the interest of EU citizens. Innovations in social services will be identified and supported through the ESCF to develop robust implementation plans to enable scaling. The implementation plans funded from the call will be transferrable across EU countries, subject to tailoring aspects to fit local cultural and operational environments. The Consortium has demonstrated experience of embracing the catalytic role that private finance can play in creating innovations and offers a highly viable route to achieving scale by the public sector. Learnings from this process will be utilised to design a further phase of the ESCF which will focus on supporting the implementation of scaling of innovations.