Funding for the Hamburg Alliance for Social Entrepreneurship secured until 2030
The Hamburg Alliance for Social Entrepreneurship was officially launched in February 2024, and one year later the first Social Entrepreneurship Forum took stock. The one-day event at the Körber Foundation featured numerous panels and workshops, and some good news: the initiative will receive financial support from the City of Hamburg for at least the next five years.
Social entrepreneurship strategy with a long-term perspective
The Hamburg Alliance for Social Entrepreneurship e.V. was founded in 2023 as an important component of the Hanseatic city's social entrepreneurship strategy. The alliance now has 116 members, a team of six organizes events on startup topics, offers comprehensive advice and ensures cross-sector networking with business and administration, among others. During a panel at the forum, Lutz Birke, Head of Port and Innovation, announced that the continuation of this work is secured until 2030. This long-term commitment goes hand in hand with the stabilization of funding for innovative projects under the title #UpdateHamburg and the continuation of the InnoImpact programme of IFB Innovationsstarter GmbH, for which 1 million euros are available each year.
Access to financing opportunities is the biggest challenge
Money that is urgently needed, as a recent survey of 50 social entrepreneurship organizations shows. According to the this, 14% of respondents rated their financial situation as very precarious and 44% as uncertain, but only 7% as good. Accordingly, 88% named “access to financing opportunities” as a key challenge, while 67% wanted more “visibility” and “understanding and recognition”. Even more than startups in general, socially oriented companies have to provide arguments for further financing after initial funding and to demonstrate the scalability and profitability of their business models.
Billions lying dormant in unused accounts
Where appropriate, the city should support social entrepreneurship not only through funding programmes, but also through concrete cooperation. Another possible financing model could be the use of so-called dormant accounts. These are accounts in which there has been no movement for at least ten years and whose owners cannot be traced. Between three and nine billion euros could be collected in this way and flow into a social fund. This is still a dream of the future, but a concrete plan for this was presented at the forum.
So where will Hamburg be with its social entrepreneurship strategy in 2025? At one of the panels, a marathon was used as a comparison and the city is at around kilometre 10, perhaps already a little further. So there is still a long way to go, but the direction is right.
