Digital Lab: Social Entrepreneurs

The COVID-19 pandemic has not only changed the way we interact during activities, but it has also pushed organisations and communities to reinvent themselves. We believe that it is now time to identify and implement new solutions together.

Digital Lab – is an online laboratory focused on capacity building. It brings Ukrainian participants together in order to develop practical solutions for their sector and learn about European approaches and models. Digital Lab has three separate streams:

for creative hub managers;
for social entrepreneurs;
for social enterprise trainers.

Each stream accommodates 20 – 25 participants. The key element of the Digital Lab is participation of EU- and the UK-based experts. They join the labs to present sector experience of the EU and the UK, and their organisations.

Key focus of the Digital Lab

Create space for experience exchange and joint search of practical solutions;
Present successful practices in creative hubs/social enterprise from the EU, the UK, and Ukraine;
Form connections between programme participants;
Create a high-quality and meaningful format of interacting online.

Digital Lab 1

The first edition of Digital Lab was designed for established social entrepreneurs and aimed to strengthen their knowledge and skills in the field of social marketing, investment attraction, market analysis and legal aspects of social enterprises.

The course covered the following topics:

attracting investments: opportunities, business evaluation, how to “wrap” the idea
social Marketing: how to effectively sell product value and create a marketing strategy and plan
market analysis: tools for market assessment and analysis of competitors, determination of competitive advantage, a compilation of a matrix for assessing the competitiveness of a joint venture
legal aspects: the relationship between co-founders, the peculiarities of employment within the SE, registration, redistribution of profits/reinvestment.

Digital Lab 2

The purpose of the second edition of Digital Lab was to acquaint Ukrainian social enterprise trainers with formats, tools, methodologies, key competencies of social enterprise trainers and facilitators, as well as analyzing case studies of various effective approaches from other spheres.

The course covered the following topics:

innovative formats, methods, and tools for training social entrepreneurs
effective techniques for the development of design thinking
practical tools for building a theory of change and measuring social impact
effective approaches to teaching financial modelling from scratch
effective social marketing tools
basic tools for attracting investment.

What is the Digital Lab: Social Entrepreneurs about?

The online lab focused on impact assessment and measurement. It brings together the Ukrainian participants to develop a theory of change for their social enterprises and build a system for social impact measurement.

Participants also learn about the practical experience of European social entrepreneurs and impact investors, who answer the questions of what for, how often to measure their impact and where to apply this data.

The course covered the following topics:

Social impact measurement and where to apply the results
10 main questions that need to be answered to better understand and assess the impact
Theory of change – what it is and how to build your theory of change
Impact indicators, how to identify and measure them
Data collection plan for evaluation, data collection methods
Application of social impact assessment results for management decisions.

Trainers are experienced European, British and Ukrainian coaches.

For whom is Digital Lab: Social Entrepreneurs?

We invite social entrepreneurs who:

are present on the market for at least 6 months
have a clearly defined product or service that is already being distributed/tested
have a reasoned motivation to participate in the program
are interested in measuring and increasing social impact and see the value of interaction with colleagues from sectors in Ukraine and the EU

What do I get by participating?

Practical knowledge and skills on how to develop your own business
Access to presentations by EU and the UK experts working with social entrepreneurs
Impact Measurement Toolkit
House of Europe alumni status (under the condition that at least 5 sessions were attended and all home assignments were submitted in time).

Partners

Digital Lab: Social Entrepreneurs was organised jointly with NGO "SILab Ukraine" and KUSIF (Koç University Social Impact Forum) as a part of the EU-funded House of Europe programme.

Questions

Have you got any questions? Please write to ce@britishcouncil.org.ua.