Philanthropic funding that sets further capital in motion: What is catalytic grantmaking, and what role can foundations play?
The first in a roundtable series on catalytic grantmaking, with Impact Europe, elea and Elucid.
Catalytic grantmaking starts where conventional finance falls short. Foundations deploy their resources to enable impact that would not otherwise be possible. A grant, for example, can bring a social enterprise to the point where commercial impact investors come on board. A guarantee can take part of the risk off other funders. Foundations can act on their own or work with specialised partners. Through such intermediaries, they can invest in social enterprises without building an investment team of their own.
With this roundtable, we are launching a series on catalytic grantmaking. Together, we want to explore the topic at the intersection of foundations, social enterprises and social innovation. Drawing on practical examples, we will discuss what role foundations can play, why this approach can be relevant to their strategy and why it matters for impact-driven enterprises. We will also look at what these relationships look like and how they can be shaped, as a complement to existing forms of funding.
Context: Impact Europe explains what defines catalytic grantmaking and where Europe stands today.
Practice: The elea Foundation for Ethics in Globalization, rooted in Switzerland and with offices in Zurich and Hubs in Johannesburg and Mexico City, founded elea Stiftung in Germany this year. elea invests philanthropic capital in social-impact-ventures in Africa, Asia and Latin America, and thereby opens up impact investing to other foundations through its partnership model. Together with the Berlin-based social enterprise Elucid, it shares insights into their collaboration: how they found each other, what both sides look for, and what has changed through the investment
Discussion: What makes catalytic grantmaking possible in some countries, and what is still holding foundations back elsewhere, for example in Germany? We look forward to hearing your perspectives.
Speakers
Anna Büchi | Knowledge Manager and Lead of the Catalytic Capital Consortium | Impact Europe
Ladina George | Director Philanthropic Investors | elea Foundation for Ethics in Globalization
PD Dr Samuel Knauss | Managing Director and Co-Founder | Elucid
Moderation: Susanna Krüger and Angelika Tews | SEND e.V.
About SEND
The Social Entrepreneurship Network Germany (SEND) is the national association for social enterprises in Germany. With more than 700 members, we strengthen the ecosystem and advocate for better policy frameworks. This includes bringing foundations and social enterprises into dialogue. The roundtable is organised by SEND as a member of the National Competence Center for Social Innovations Germany (NCC SI Germany) in context of the European Social Innovation Alliance (ESIA), funded by the Social Innovative+ Initiative of the European Social Fund Plus.
Notice:
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or European Social Fund Agency. Neither the European Union nor the Granting Authority can be held responsible for them.
