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It’s Not You, It’s the Work: Why Social Entrepreneurs Often Face Burnout, and What the Ecosystem Can Do About It
As their own bosses, social entrepreneurs have the freedom to decide when to switch off and take some time away from work. But as Andreana Drencheva at King’s College London and Wee Chan Au at Newcastle University argue, they often feel unable to use that freedom — a situation that frequently leads to burnout. And advice on how to avoid burnout typically fails to take their unique pressures and responsibilities into account. They share findings from their recent study of 40 social entrepreneurs in Malaysia, describing the four conditions that drive this inability to switch off, and exploring how funders, clients and other ecosystem players can provide more support.
- Categories
- Social Enterprise
- Tags
- research
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Analysis: Beyond Capital: What It Will Take to Unlock Investment in Africa’s Social Enterprises
Isaac Aggrey of the African Social Entrepreneurs Network explores what it takes to unlock investment for Africa’s social enterprises and SMEs. Beyond capital, he highlights investment readiness, appropriate finance, risk-sharing, market access and impact measurement as critical to helping viable enterprises grow, create jobs, empower women and strengthen inclusive, resilient economies across Africa.
- Categories
- Social Enterprise
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Capital Without Context is Not Impact Investing: Why Trust Networks are Essential Infrastructure, and How the Sector Can Leverage Them More Effectively
According to many funders, a common reason why impact capital does not reach enterprises in emerging markets is the lack of investable deal flow. But as Alessa Berg at Top Tier Impact argues, a pipeline of investable businesses exists. What's lacking is the connective tissue between investors and entrepreneurs: networks of trusted, embedded practitioners who can surface credible opportunities, do meaningful due diligence, and bridge the enormous information asymmetry between funders and founders. She explores the importance of these trust networks in impact investing, and argues that the sector needs to mobilize funding to help build them.
- Categories
- Investing, Social Enterprise
- Tags
- impact investing, lending
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African Entrepreneurs Win $400,000 in Catalytic Funding to Scale High-Impact Startups
Six African startups have been selected as winners of the 2026 FINCA Ventures Prize Competition, receiving a combined $400,000 in catalytic funding to accelerate their impact in key resilience sectors.
- Categories
- Social Enterprise
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Impact Entrepreneurship During the Polycrisis: An Interview with Laurie Lane-Zucker
The impact sector has proven that business can do good. But how can it make those impacts last, as the polycrisis puts communities, ecosystems and business models at increasing risk around the world? Those are some of the questions at the heart of a new book, “The Impact Entrepreneur Breakthrough: A Field Manual for the Regenerative Economy,” by Laurie Lane-Zucker, the founder and CEO of Impact Entrepreneur. In this interview, he shares guidance from the book — and from his decades of work as a pioneering voice in the impact space — on how the sector can navigate the growing complexity of the global challenges it faces today.
- Categories
- Social Enterprise
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Right-Sizing IMM: Five Ways Impact Measurement and Management Can Work for Enterprises — Not Just Investors
Impact measurement and management (IMM) systems too often reward compliance over impact, extracting more than they’ve given back. According to Julia Mensink at Acumen and Heather Esper at the William Davidson Institute, impact data tends to be focused mainly on satisfying investors’ requirements, not informing investees' decisions — and gathering it often ends up consuming enterprises' time and resources and constraining their ability to create the impact they’re expected to measure. They share learnings from a gathering of IMM experts earlier this year, highlighting several ways investors, investees and IMM professionals can right-size these practices, aligning them with enterprises' actual decisions and integrating them into their core operations.
- Categories
- Investing, Social Enterprise
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Viewpoint: Entrepreneurship is Changing and Education Needs to Change With It
"UNDP research shows how young founders are using innovation and digital tools to respond to challenges in areas such as education, healthcare, inclusion, and local economic development, while Global Entrepreneurship Monitor reports that 84% of early-stage entrepreneurs consider social and/or environmental impact when making business decisions."
- Categories
- Education, Social Enterprise
- Region
- Global
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Entrepreneurship Unleashed: Winners of 2026 Global Case Writing Competition
"The primary goal of this competition was to place students in the shoes of protagonists who are facing pivot points in their enterprises’ journey toward profitability, scale and sustainability. The winners received cash prizes in addition to the publication of their cases."
- Categories
- Education, Social Enterprise
- Region
- Global
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