The first workshop within the Program for Sustainable Businesses took place on Wednesday, May 25, with the topic of “Impact and Social Entrepreneurship”.  

The workshop was led by the Smart Kolektiv director, Neven Marinovic, and our program coordinator, Jelena Janakievska. Representatives of the 10 companies selected to be part of the program had the opportunity to learn more about social entrepreneurship, to work on formulating the social impact their business has in their community, learn more about the theory of change, define goals and systematically measure the impact they achieve in the community. 

This is the first out of six workshops and modules through which the participants of the program will go through in order to work further on their business development strategy and preparation for impact investments. 

Meet 10 enterprises with strong social impact that are chosen to be part of this program! 

The Program for Sustainable Businesses is part of the Smart Impact Fund – Fund for the Development of Sustainable Economy, which will invest about half a million euros in the next 5 years in initiatives and companies that contribute to sustainable and positive changes in their communities. The Fund strives to provide long-term professional and financial support to social enterprises in various stages of development and thus contribute to the development of an economy with positive social impact. By 2024, the program will invest about half a million euros in initiatives and enterprises that contribute to sustainable and positive changes in their communities.     

The Program for Sustainable Businesses is implemented with the support of EFSE Entrepreneurship Academy, Open Society Foundation, the Balkan Trust for Democracy of the German Marshall Fund of the United States and the Embassy of the Kingdom of Norway in Belgrade.     

The Smart Impact Fund was launched by Smart Kolektiv in 2019 with support of the European Venture Philanthropy Association (EVPA) and the former USAID-funded Framework for Giving project that was implemented by the Coalition for Giving led by the Ana and Vlade Divac Foundation.