The Entrepreneurship Impact Fund 2023-2026 is a three-year fund, supported by a private donor, which aims to have impact across three strands:
This open call covers Strand 3, worth a total of €900,000, and is open for applications via the online portal from the 15th of January 2025 to the 21st March 2025.
Ireland faces continuing critical social issues across health, education, equality, and the green transition sectors. One of the key problems confronting social enterprises 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 barriers.
The Entrepreneurship Impact Fund’s Strand 3 is a unique opportunity for 5 minority-led social enterprises, taking an entrepreneurial approach to social change, to get support to deliver sustained individual and collective solutions across communities over a three year period and beyond.
The fund will focus on growing and scaling early/mid-stage minority-led social enterprises that have proof of impact, but require additional support to reach the next stage of growth. It will provide multi-year funding and targeted support in the areas of scaling, investment and procurement readiness, organisational resilience, leadership, impact measurement, and financial sustainability.
For the purpose of this fund, the focus will be on supporting social enterprises led by ethnic minorities, migrants and refugees.
All five Awardees will receive a cash grant of up to €60,000 per annum over the 3 year period and a tailored non-financial supports package*. This will include supports such as strategic planning, communications planning, impact management and fundraising strategy development.
Capacity building supports include:
* 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.
You can apply to the Entrepreneurship Impact Fund – Strand 3 via the online portal from the 15th of January 2025 to 21st March 2025 at 1pm. (extended from the original deadline of 28th of February 2025)
Please join us for one of our application clinics to find out more and answer any questions that you have:
For any questions you may have please contact entrepreneurship@rethinkireland.ie
This fund is open to organisations that have a not-for-profit legal form, e.g. charity, social enterprise and other voluntary organisations that meet the following criteria:
Projects must meet both Rethink Ireland’s criteria and the specific criteria for the Entrepreneurship Impact Fund, as set out below:
There are three ways projects could scale over time:
The criteria below will be considered advantageous in applications, however, organisations that meet the core criteria but do not meet the advantageous criteria are encouraged to apply:
Projects that are not eligible to apply are:
Applicants that are not eligible to apply are:
Yes. If you have previously been funded by Rethink Ireland, you can still apply but if you have already participated in a Growth Fund, you are not eligible for this Fund. Previous awardees must be able to demonstrate they have performed well on a previous programme and capture in the application form how the new funding being applied for is a logical continuation from the original investment, fitting the new Fund criteria in particular.
Projects on one of our Funds that have cash grant payments remaining before the commencement of the new fund programme are not eligible to apply.
Organisations on one of our Funds that have cash grant payments remaining before the commencement of the new fund programme are still eligible to apply with a different project and different project lead.
No, it is not, we welcome applications from early to mid-stage social enterprises that have a not-for-profit legal form (see criteria above).
Unfortunately no, this fund is specifically for early to mid-stage organisations that are up and running with a proven track record.
Yes, there is nothing stopping your organisation from making more than one application for separate projects. However, due to the competitive nature of this Fund and its selection process, it is very unlikely that we will fund more than one project from any organisation. We encourage organisations to submit one strong application rather than multiple applications.
Yes, you can apply if you are in receipt of funding from a government or state agency. However, if your organisation is 100% funded through state sources then you are not eligible to apply to the Fund.
They can and one organisation should take the lead. Please refer to the eligibility criteria to ensure that your project is eligible for funding.
DACs are not eligible to apply for funding from Rethink Ireland
The Entrepreneurship Impact Fund Strand 3 – Minority Entrepreneurship Fund – will support up to five awardees for three years with an annual cash grant of up to €60,000.
The fund will also provide:
Rethink Ireland’s Accelerator is a unique offer, equipping awardees with the skills needed to expand and deepen their impact. It provides training from best-in-class experts across the private, nonprofit and public sector. Training is provided across a range of functions and may include:
The cash grant must be spent on the project that won the award and must be ring-fenced for work you are undertaking. The specific use of the cash grant will be agreed between Rethink Ireland and the Awardee.
The funding may be used to cover operations/staff costs but you must be able to demonstrate in your application how this is facilitating you to run the project that you are applying for. Cash grants may not be used to pay off debts or for capital items such as renovations, or for vehicles, land, buildings or large equipment.
Rethink Ireland’s non-financial supports have been called our ‘secret sauce’ that help projects to really develop their capacity and sustainability, in addition to the benefit of the cash supports. Non-financial supports will include:
The project lead will be expected to take part in the Capacity Building Programme, which includes attending approximately up to 6 workshops in year 1 and spending time working 1:1 in years 2 and 3 with a business/strategy consultant.
Project Leads will also be required to meet 4 times per year with the Fund Manager to discuss their project progress.
The application form asks you for information about:
Don’t worry – you don’t need to produce a high quality or expensive video. You can use a smartphone or tablet. We just want to hear you telling the story of your project in 2 – 3 mins max. Please tell us:
You can then upload your video to YouTube or Vimeo and password protect it if you wish. You can insert the URL link and the password in the application form.
In the relevant section of the application form you will be provided with a link to a budget template in excel. Please click on the link provided and DOWNLOAD this document to your computer. Then fill in your financial information and save the document with your project’s name and then upload it in the relevant section of the application form.
We have tried to make the application process as accessible as possible but we understand that there may still be some difficulties for applicants. If you have access needs or are struggling with the application form, please contact entrepreneurship@rethinkireland.ie
The selection process is very rigorous and consists of a number of stages:
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.
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.
By applying for the Entrepreneurship Impact Fund, you agree to the following terms and conditions.