Boosting Social Enterprise Development
Good Practice Compendium
Social enterprises are long-standing agents of inclusive growth and democratisation of the economic and social spheres, and they have proved resilient to economic adversity all the while addressing socio-economic challenges in innovative ways, re-integrating people back to the labour market, and contributing to overall social cohesion. This compendium derives policy lessons for boosting social enterprises from the analysis of 20 initiatives in several EU member-countries, covering a range of policy areas from legal frameworks, finance, market access, and support structures, to education and skills.
ES Fund TISE: A loan fund, Poland
ES Fund TISE is a pilot programme providing loans to social enterprises coupled with free advisory services. The programme aims to increase social enterprises’ access to finance, which is necessary to the expansion of their activity. This chapter describes the programme’s objectives and rationale, together with its main activities and structure. It presents the challenges faced in implementing the scheme and the impact achieved. It concludes with the lessons learnt and conditions for transferring this practice to other contexts.