The vision of philanthropist Declan Ryan provided the spark that led to the setting up of Social Entrepreneurs Ireland. In 2003 Ryan’s One Foundation was looking to support social entrepreneurship, along with youth mental health. Ryan recalls an inspiring visit to Boston where he met the people running an organisation called New Profit. He was impressed with the organisation’s model and more particularly with the attitudes of the 10 social entrepreneurs he met there.
“Typically, they had been involved in some form of social activities since their teens. They had picked it up from home,” he says.
While New Profit and, later, other organisations gave the One Foundation the language of social entrepreneurship and practical ideas in terms of the best models for supporting it, when he returned to Ireland Ryan was struck with a greater realisation.
“I came to the view that there is a social entrepreneur in every village in Ireland. Even to this day they don’t know they are social entrepreneurs but they do really good things in their communities, they are tuned in to local problems and issues and they know what needs to be done. They just need to be supported.”
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The One Foundation toyed with the idea of importing an organisational model for social entrepreneurship into Ireland and had discussions with various international bodies before deciding to set up their own body. Ryan says a decision was made that Ireland was best served by setting up a new organisation that would take lessons from international best practice but that would also respond to and understand the Irish context and social dynamics.
Social Entrepreneurs Ireland was launched in 2004 within the One Foundation, which supported it financially in its first few years. It was spun off as an independent entity three years later, with Ryan remaining as chairman for a number of years subsequently.
Sean Coughlan, the organisation’s first CEO, recalls the challenges of the early years: “We spent some time trying to understand the characteristics of what makes a social entrepreneur and the notion of taking a chance on an idea that was unproven but would have great potential for social impact. This involved taking a risk where others wouldn’t, providing support, backing and trusting others. That was a big part of the idea from the start – supporting the great vision of others rather than controlling the direction.”
Coughlan says that over time the concept of social entrepreneurship became a lot more established and other organisations developed and grew in this space. It was the success of the projects supported, however, that made the real difference.
“We started to get some proof points,” he says. “It takes time for ideas to develop and grow. It takes anything up to 10 years for ideas to mature. If we look at some of the examples of the projects we supported in our early days, such as AsIAm, Food Cloud and Pieta House, they went on to become well established national organisations, achieving real transformation in the spaces they operated in. That provided great credibility for the idea of supporting social entrepreneurs in their early stages.”
One of the differences in the way Social Entrepreneurs Ireland operated was that it supported individuals, not organisations, in early stage development of ventures. The idea was that individuals were the ones with the vision and the passion to drive projects that would have strong social impacts.
Coughlan admits that there was scepticism from some sources initially about this approach but experience in its first few years proved that trusting individuals yielded results. Virtually all of the projects Social Entrepreneurs Ireland has supported have achieved significant social impacts.
“If you have a good selection process you mitigate the risk but everything is a balance,” he says. “The more you protect against risk the less likely you are to find the outliers who might not tick all the traditional boxes.”
The concept of supporting projects at different stages of the journeys was also established quickly. Though Social Entrepreneurs Ireland’s programmes have evolved over the years, the core idea of providing support to projects at initial concept stage, developing stage and scaling projects with high potential for social impact was employed from the early days, Coughlan recalls.
Some of the other projects he has fond memories of include Fáilte Isteach, which provided practical support to new residents in Ireland, such as going to appointments with them and helping them navigate language barriers; Camara, which repurposed and upgraded unwanted computers so they could be used in schools in the developing world; and Mad Pride, which helped to change attitudes towards those with mental health and neurodivergent issues.
Public relations consultant Julian Davis was also involved in helping shape the message of Social Entrepreneurs Ireland in its early days, including serving on its board.
“We found it challenging at that time to come up with a 30-seconds elevator pitch of what social entrepreneurship was, especially one that that was relevant to corporate supporters,” says Davis. “Over time that became easier as businesses grasped the entrepreneurial aspect of social entrepreneurship. As entrepreneurs themselves, they could understand that and appreciate how this was something good for them to be aligned with.”
Darren Ryan is another individual who spent time at Social Entrepreneurs Ireland during its formative years. He joined in 2009, becoming CEO in 2014 and spent 11 years in total at the organisation.
He says his world view changed through his experience of working with social entrepreneurs.
“So often we look for solutions from the top down,” he says. “Very often solutions exist within communities but the challenge is to provide them with the resources that they need. The resources often don’t flow to the places where the best knowledge of or connection to the problem exists. Social entrepreneurs know exactly what needs to be done. We just need to support them.”
He agrees with Sean Coughlan that it is the projects themselves that underline the importance of the organisation’s mission and that social entrepreneurship is best illustrated through examples, rather than theories.
“The more we were able to highlight successful case studies, the easier it was for people to understand it,” says Ryan. “We didn’t set about trying to convince anybody about ourselves or to provide a logical argument for what we were doing. We concentrated on supporting social entrepreneurs and once they started having success, that was a key inflection point.”
The knowledge of what would help social entrepreneurs evolved, helped in many cases by the experience of following projects from concept through their scaling and development phases.
“This isn’t just a ‘one and done’. We wanted to be part of the journey from when they have the idea to when they are scaling it,” says Ryan. “That goes beyond being a funder. That’s about being a critical friend at various stages of that journey – we saw that as part of our role as well.
“The entrepreneurs would also become part of our community and would help other social entrepreneurs as well. People have got so much support from other social entrepreneurs because they had found their tribe of like-minded people who were facing similar challenges.”
Ryan says one of the key challenges was trying to convince individual donors and corporates to come on board and take a chance on what was at the time a largely unproven concept.
“We knew that with more funding we could have a greater impact. Our supporters and funders became part of our community as well. It wasn’t just a community of social entrepreneurs – it was also a community of supporters as well. Our supporters became longer-term partners typically and it wasn’t a transactional donation. The language of supporters changed and they started to talk about ‘our social entrepreneurs’.”
Coughlan says the work of Social Entrepreneurship in supporting more than 650 projects over the years speaks for itself. On a broader level, there is a greater acceptance of the idea of social entrepreneurship and a growing momentum in this area.
“It is a well-understood concept and a well-accepted approach – not the only approach to creating social impact or a magic bullet in itself but part a mosaic of ways that you go around creating a better society and a country, so I think that’s a really positive change.”
Looking back on 20 years of Social Entrepreneurs Ireland, Declan Ryan agrees: “The concept of social entrepreneurship is so much better appreciated. I think it is much more in the dialogue now when you talk to the various stakeholders here. We’ve come a long way.”
Levelling the playing field in education
David Neville and Pádraic Hogan didn’t set out to be social entrepreneurs when they started their journey seven years ago. Their initial plan focused on a business opportunity to harness their technology skills to offer student grinds in a more flexible and efficient model. What they uncovered during their research changed how they approached their venture.
They discovered that around 50 per cent of the 60,000 students taking the Leaving Cert accessed grinds – with the vast majority coming from privileged backgrounds. This creates two problems. Firstly, those who could afford it gained an advantage. Secondly, this advantage pushed the points requirement higher, further disadvantaging those who couldn’t access grinds. Addressing this problem is the purpose of their organisation jumpAGrade.
“We moved from looking at just a better way of delivering grinds when we saw the inequality that went with those grinds. That wasn’t something we could just forget so it moved us in a different direction on to an altogether much more rewarding journey,” says Hogan.
Drilling down further, Neville and Hogan discovered that progression to college followed social and economic advantage. For example, more than 90 per cent of students from Dublin 2 and 4 go on to college, while only 17 per cent of students from Dublin 17 do.
As well as participating in Social Entrepreneurs Ireland programmes, jumpAgrade has worked with a variety of partners from philanthropists to education and community bodies, to provide access to those who need help gaining extra supports.
Instead of replicating the traditional grinds approach, jumpAgrade operates a more flexible, digital-based model where students and teachers collaborate on schedules that suit both parties. When they enrol on the platform, students complete a needs analysis, have assignments set which they upload, and receive video feedback on how they can improve their performance. There is a strong emphasis on a one-to-one and a tailored teaching approach.
“Our teachers love to see all students get the chance to improve by working with them on a one-to-one basis, regardless of ability, location or family background,” says Hogan.
Thousands of students have been supported by jumpAgrade since its launch and the results are impressive. The average grade bettervement of jumpAgrade students is 22 per cent, and 96 per cent of students have reported that the platform has helped them achieve their goals, with a similar number reporting an increase in confidence in their chosen subject.
The founders believe that their model is one that can scale internationally, as the problems they have identified know no borders. “Because you are having a social impact doesn’t mean you have to set a limit on your aspirations for scaling. Having a social purpose can fuel your growth and can have a wider impact than if you were solely driven by the bottom line,” Hogan concludes.
Harnessing the therapeutic power of the sea
Sailing into Wellness is a not for profit social enterprise born out of the founders’ passion to utilise the unique setting of the sea to help participants deal with challenging life circumstances. It has provided valuable support for participants facing mental health, addiction recovery and intellectual and physical disability issues.
The inspiration for the venture came from Colin Healy, who discovered the amazing therapeutic potential of sailing, having faced his own addiction and mental-health issues. He researched the concept and teamed up James Lyons, one of Ireland’s most experienced sail training professionals to form Sailing into Wellness.
The pair teamed up to launch a pilot project in 2016, offering trips on the water to groups and organisations in the Cork and Dublin areas – including participants in the Coolmine alcohol and addiction programme – which has since expanded significantly. Sailing into Wellness now has a number of boats, one of which is the historic sailing ship Ilen. This vessel is the pinnacle of their programmes, which are delivered all around the Irish coast to a wide range of community-based organisations
Adventure therapy is well developed in North America, Australia and Scandinavia. The idea is to take participants out of their normal environment into one that is both exhilarating and therapeutic. Many of those who have participated report huge benefits in their overall sense of wellness.
Around 400 people participate in Sailing into Wellness programmes each year.
“We talk with participants and they set goals for the day and they can be quite straightforward around communication or happiness, for example. We then have an informal chat afterwards to see if they feel they are achieving those goals and the impact it’s having on their journey,” says Lyons.
“Our vision is for Sailing into Wellness to be a healthy natural solution for our communities to look after their physical and mental wellbeing and it is our mission to use the sea to inspire change in our communities.”
Sailing into Wellness participated in SEI’s Impact Programme in 2017.
“The funding is what attracted us initially and then as we chatted to past awardees we could see that there were much longer-lasting benefits to the programme. It’s more about the business programme, the mentoring programme, while the network of potential funders and clients has been really wide ranging,” Lyons adds.
Reimagining urban spaces through plants
Pocket Forests is a social enterprise on a mission “to accelerate social change through the power of both people and plants,” as it puts it.
Founded by Catherine Cleary and Ashe Conrad Jones, Pocket Forests’s mission is to reimagine urban spaces by growing pockets of native forests with communities, creating thriving soil, biodiversity, climate resilience and natural habitat networks.
Pocket Forests encourages the planting of forests of fast-growing native trees with dense, mixed planting in small urban spaces from as little as 6sq m to 100sq m. Its approach, using the Japanese Miyawaki technique, mimics the deep layers of a natural forest and taps into the richness of resources that already exists to bring life back to tired soil. It also encourages microbes and earthworms to do the heavy work of digging, which means that people of all ages and abilities can be involved.
More than 80 per cent of the island of Ireland was once covered by trees. By 1925 that had declined to just 1 per cent. Until recently forestry was considered valuable only as a supply of timber to be harvested. The vast majority of Ireland’s new forests are planted with species such as Sitka spruce imported from Alaska. Just 2 per cent of Ireland is covered with native broadleaved trees. Native trees have a host of benefits for the environment and help promote biodiversity.
Pocket Forests has worked with multiple community and corporate projects since its inception in 2020 and participated in Social Entrepreneurs Ireland’s Impact programme in 2023-24. The organisation works with fully funded projects or tries to match sites with funders. Pocket Forests also provides corporate packages involving education programmes and practical workshops to create a pocket forest on campus.
Tackling hygiene poverty
Hygiene poverty is a big problem for many people. A survey by Trinity College Dublin last year indicated that 65 per cent of those surveyed had experienced difficulty affording essential hygiene items in the previous 12 months, defined as, “having gone without basic toiletries of hygiene items because you could not afford to buy them”.
The study highlighted that hygiene poverty is an issue across social classes and that continued and enhanced efforts are required to address the issue, including defining access to hygiene and housing cleaning items as a deprivation indicator.
Hygiene poverty results in problems such as parents being unable to change a baby’s nappy as often as needed, not being able to replace a toothbrush or an entire family having to share a toothbrush, washing hair, bodies and clothes in the same washing up-liquid used for dishes or not being able to wash clothes, uniforms or sports kits when needed.
The founders of the Hygiene Hub – Rosie McDonagh, Ciara Dalton and Sorcha Killian – were united by the vision to eliminate hygiene poverty in Ireland and for everyone in Ireland to have equal access to hygiene and cleaning products.
Hygiene Hub’s mission is to provide hygiene and cleaning products through its network of partners and to be advocates for change in this area through education, research and campaigns. In late 2019, styling themselves initially as The Hygiene Bank Dublin, the founders started collecting hygiene products from friends, family and via drop-off points in local business.
These products were then delivered to homeless organisations, women’s refuges and food banks. Within around two years, Hygiene Bank Ireland had delivered more than 30,000kg of hygiene products all over Ireland.
McDonagh, Dalton and Killian have grown what was a local community group of three people who wanted to make a difference into a charity of more than 50 volunteers across seven counties, all while working or studying full time. Hygiene Hub has not only sourced and distributed a large volume of hygiene products, it has also raised awareness of this hidden element of poverty.