Who We Are 

What We Believe

We believe that Ireland needs new, big ideas to address the social and environmental challenges we face today. We believe that social entrepreneurs provide such high impact innovations. They ignite social change by challenging the status quo and using their entrepreneurial skills and talents not for financial gain but for public or social benefit.

What We Do

Social Entrepreneurs Ireland directly supports high potential social entrepreneurs to enable them to maximise their impact.

At the core of our activities is our Awards Programme which provides financial investment and direct support to early stage social entrepreneurs through a four stage process:

Selection which identifies high potential social entrepreneurs;
Celebration which shares their stories with a wider audience;
Support which provides an investment package up to €200,000 and additional support to help them grow their organisations to deliver sustainable impact;
Networking which helps them connect with the stakeholders that are going to be essential to their success.

Our commitment to the social entrepreneur is up to three years. When the term of their Award is over, Awardees become members of the wider Social Entrepreneurs Ireland Alumni Network.

When We Started

Social Entrepreneurs Ireland was founded as a programme of The One Foundation in 2004. In January 2007, in order to allow continued expansion of our activities, Social Entrepreneurs Ireland was setup as an independent organisation.

How We Are Funded

Social Entrepreneurs Ireland is funded by both private foundations and individuals. For more information, please visit our Partners page.

Legal

Social Entrepreneurs Ireland is a registered company (company no 433846) with charitable status (CHY no 17524). The registered office is First Floor, The Warehouse, 35 Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland. A list of our current Directors can be found here