As part of the Invest for Change project, funded by the European Union, Smart Kolektiv participated in the project’s partner meeting and the international Business of Impact conference, held on 15 and 16 September 2026 in Lisbon and organised by Impact Europe. The conference brought together around 170 participants from the business sector, foundations, investment funds, philanthropy and social innovation. In addition to Smart Kolektiv, the Serbian participants included Sidro Foundation and Intesa Foundation Philanthropic Organisation.
One of the key topics of the conference was how the private sector can move beyond individual corporate social responsibility programmes and one-off investments towards making a more long-term contribution to addressing social and environmental challenges. Discussions focused on bringing different stakeholders together, developing new financing models and combining different forms of capital and support to achieve lasting change.
For Smart Kolektiv, the issue of access to capital in less developed markets, including the Western Balkans, was particularly relevant. During an interactive session, Željko Mitkovski from Smart Kolektiv joined Irina Janevska from ARNO, representatives of the Philips Foundation and Pontis Foundation to discuss the need for international investors and donors to pay greater attention to regions with limited access to capital and support, particularly the Western Balkans.
During their time in Lisbon, Smart Kolektiv exchanged experiences with partners from the region and across Europe and explored opportunities for new partnerships. The work of Portuguese organisations MAZE Impact and Ageas Foundation was also presented. Discussions with representatives of Ageas Foundation focused on new support models, including revenue-sharing approaches, as well as the Foundation’s work with the Portuguese Foundation Center to promote impact investing and prepare a guide on the topic.
One of the sessions focused on the Social Investment in Action platform, developed by Impact Intelligence in collaboration with Impact Europe. The platform tracks data on the impact ecosystem in Europe and is available free of charge to Impact Europe members. Discussions with representatives of Euclid Network also explored opportunities for developing regional initiatives and connecting with the upcoming ESEM process.
The conference also highlighted the challenges of collaboration between different stakeholders, whose mandates, working methods and funding criteria often differ. This makes networking, shared learning and the development of concrete cooperation mechanisms important for creating new support models. For Smart Kolektiv, participating in the conference provided an opportunity to bring experiences from Serbia and the region into the European conversation, while also exploring how approaches and models from other countries could be adapted to the needs of the local ecosystem.
Invest for Change is a four-year project funded by the European Union and implemented by Impact Europe in partnership with organisations from the Western Balkans. Smart Kolektiv is the project partner in Serbia, focusing on the development of social entrepreneurship, impact finance and support for social enterprises and impact-driven businesses.
Read more about the Business of Impact conference here.
