From Ideas to Impact: Results of the 2021 – 2023 Partner Innovation Fund Cohort

There are many ways to address today’s most pressing global challenges. We believe the most effective ones are grounded in the experience and expertise of community-based organizations who are closest to the challenges and opportunities impacting their communities. 

Our Partner Innovation Fund supports inclusive social innovation and social entrepreneurship through two-year awards given to community-based organizations. These awards are accompanied by volunteer assignments specially designed to support the innovations. Our goal is to assist our partners to pilot their new approaches and adaptations of existing solutions while offering critical resources to scale more established ones. 

A total of nine WUSC partners across six countries were awarded Partner Innovation Funds in 2021, out of 29 applicants. This cohort of recipients included a strong focus on climate adaptation and support to refugees, among other important social issues. 

Here are the highlights from two innovative initiatives from our 2021- 2023 cohort.

Amplifying the Voices of Sri Lanka’s Diverse Social Entrepreneurs 

Lanka Impact Investing Network | Sri Lanka

As Sri Lanka’s first impact investment firm, Lanka Impact Investing Network (LIIN) is focused on channeling private capital to solve pressing social and environmental issues by promoting impact investing across the island. This includes actively investing in social enterprises through impact investment funds as well as providing business development support to nurture a well-developed ecosystem of social entrepreneurs across the country. 

With support from WUSC, LIIN has launched a web platform for social entrepreneurs as part of their work toward an equitable and inclusive entrepreneurship ecosystem in economically marginalized communities in Sri Lanka. Their aim is not only to promote these entrepreneurs and their businesses but also to use the platform to amplify marginalized voices and create awareness of the challenges faced within society.

A WUSC volunteer Digital Content Creation Advisor from Sri Lanka supported the development and launch of the platform and a Management Information System. 

The platform launched in March 2023 and LIIN has selected the first 25 entrepreneurs whose businesses and voices will be featured on the platform, 80% of whom are women. These entrepreneurs were selected from five regional forums hosted by LIIN which brought together more than 300 entrepreneurs. 

Connecting Women Agri-Entrepreneurs to Global Markets

Women’s Initiatives for Startups and Entrepreneurship | Vietnam

In Vietnam, Women Initiatives for Startups and Entrepreneurs (WISE), is an organization that supports women-led small and medium enterprises to grow and compete nationally and internationally. They offer well rounded business development support for women, including capacity building, business incubation and acceleration, business mentoring, improving access to finance and investment, community building, and research and policy advocacy.

WISE leveraged funding from the Partner Innovation Fund to develop a one-stop-shop sales platform for European buyers called ‘Miss Linh’. This platform is exclusively for Vietnamese suppliers of sustainable agri-food products, particularly young women entrepreneurs. In addition, WISE is providing training, mentoring, and marketing and logistics support to women entrepreneurs to prepare them to meet rigorous export requirements. In January 2023, Miss Linh was launched live at the Horecava Fair, which is the biggest hospitality and foods fair in the Netherlands.

Nearly 300 entrepreneurs, 91% of whom were women, participated in the initial training provided by WISE. Afterward, the team selected 180 promising small and medium enterprises to gain access to the platform. Within three months of launching, 12 businesses had already listed more than 50 products on the platform and have reported improved income through sales and contracts with buyers in the EU.