Entrepreneurship Impact Fund 2023-2026
26/01/2024
Applications are now closed.
The Entrepreneurship Impact Fund 2023-2026 is a three year fund, through the support of a private donor, which aims to have impact across three strands:
- Strand 1: The Social Innovation Growth and Scaling Fund
- Strand 2: Youth Entrepreneurship Incubators
- Strand 3: The Minority Entrepreneurship Fund
The first open call which is now closed covered Strand 1, worth a total of €3,000,000. The open-calls for strands 2 & 3 are expected to be announced in 2024.
The Entrepreneurship Impact Fund – Strand 1 aims to support mid-stage and mature social innovations to achieve higher levels of impact by scaling their innovations and reaching the next stage of growth.
Ireland faces continuing critical social issues across health, education, equality, and the green sectors. One of the key problems confronting social innovations is the difficulty of scaling their operations and social impact. Insufficient funding in terms of both scale and duration to align with their aspirations, as well as a shortage of suitable capacity-building supports are key main barriers.
The Entrepreneurship Impact Fund’s Strand 1 will address the challenge of scaling and reaching growth by providing multi-year funding and targeted support in the areas of scaling, investment and procurement readiness, organisational resilience, leadership, impact measurement, and financial sustainability.
This strand has two investment areas: the Growth Fund and the Scale Up Fund.
The Growth Fund
The Impact Goal of the Growth Fund is to enable mature social innovations and social enterprises to:
- Scale up/out their operations to national level: through a well-defined scaling strategy aligned with their strategic plan
- Reinforce the financial sustainability: through growing their income with support from expert consultants and Rethink Ireland
- Achieve national transformative impact and/or system change
The Growth Fund will support up to three awardees for three years and provide an annual cash grant ranging from €160,000 to €200,000 as well as capacity building supports*.
The Scale Up Fund
The Impact Goal of the Scale Up Fund is to enable mid-stage social innovations and social enterprises to:
- Scale their operations to new geographies/locations: through a well-defined scaling strategy aligned with their strategic plan
- Increase financial sustainability: through growing their income with support from expert consultants and Rethink Ireland
- Increase their social impact to new levels
The Scale Up Fund will support up to four awardees for three years and provide an annual cash grant ranging from €40,000 to €60,000 as well as capacity building support*. This Fund will focus on scaling mid-stage social innovations and social enterprises that have proof of impact, but require additional support to reach the next stage of growth.
Capacity building supports include:
- a place on Rethink Ireland’s Accelerator Programme
- bespoke business and one-to-one consultancy supports delivered by experts consultants and designed in consultation with the successful projects on topics such as scaling, financial sustainability, investment readiness, organisational resilience, and impact measurement.
- access to Rethink Ireland’s networks.
* The Rethink Ireland Board will decide how much money to award, which may be less than the amount requested. The final amount of the award will depend on how many organisations are selected.
Applications are now closed.
When will we hear about our application?
What happens after we submit our application?
- Applications will go through a rigorous selection process (for more information see below).
- Successful applicants will be informed in April 2024.
- The cash grants will be delivered in six instalments – one at the beginning of the programme and the remaining ones tied to agreed performance milestones.
- The Accelerator Programme will run across the lifetime of the fund
- The Accelerator supports will be designed in consultation with the awardees and reflect organisational/project needs.
- The Fund will close in December 2026
How does the selection process work?
The selection process is very rigorous and consists of a number of stages:
- Stage 1 – Open call for applications (16th November 2023 – 26th January 2024)
- Stage 2 – Internal and external reviews of all applications (January 2024)
- Stage 3 – Interviews for shortlisted applicants (February 2024)
- Stage 4 – Due Diligence/Governance checks on short-listed applicants (February 2024)
- Stage 5 – Final decision by Rethink Ireland board (April/May 2024)
Who will decide who wins the awards?
All applications will be reviewed thoroughly through a rigorous process. The Board of Rethink Ireland will make the final decision on successful applicants and the number and value of the final awards given.
How do applicants find out where they are in the selection process?
We will contact all applicants by email to let them know whether or not they have been shortlisted and invited to interview. Interviews will be conducted via online video link. When final decisions have been made on the successful applicants, we will contact all shortlisted applicants by phone or email to let them know whether they have been successful.
Terms and Conditions
By applying for the Entrepreneurship Impact Fund, you agree to the following terms and conditions.
- You are 18 years of age or older.
- You have given full and truthful information, both verbal and written, at all stages of the application and selection process.
- You are eligible to apply. This means that your organisation meets the criteria for Rethink Ireland and, as described.
- You have the right to apply. This means that you hold the necessary rights to carry out the project.
- By sending in your application, you accept these terms and conditions and our Privacy Statement. If you do not comply with these terms and conditions, you may be disqualified and may have to return any award granted.
- Rethink Ireland will hold the personal details which you submitted with your application form. We will only share this information with the third parties administering the application and selection process unless we agree otherwise with you. Please see our Privacy Statement for full details.
- The Awardees must take part in publicity about the grant. Rethink Ireland reserves the right to publish the names of organisations that are successful in their applications.
- If you decline an award or if the award is taken back because you did not comply with the terms and conditions, the Directors may select an alternative Awardee.
- Rethink Ireland reserves the right to disqualify any entrant, to change the terms and conditions without notice, or to cancel the application process at any stage.
- Where relevant, applicant organisations must be fully compliant with guidelines, regulations and legislation applicable to their project, for instance, Children First guidelines and child protection regulations.
If you have further questions, please contact us at: entrepreneurship@rethinkireland.ie
