Dreams in action

The National Network of Local Philanthropy Development is implementing the program “Dreams in Action” to strengthen the role of women in Ukrainian society, support them in self-realization and increase their self-confidence. The program will work in two directions: facilitating the creation of businesses by the participants and developing charity.

• We have helped 20 women from all over Ukraine to develop existing social businesses or even create them from scratch. Each business has its own social purpose. The program participants received financial, mentoring, and expert support.

The initiative is being implemented with the technical support of UN Women @unwomenukraine and with funding from the UN Women’s Peace and Humanitarian Fund (WPHF) @wphfund, a flexible and responsive funding instrument that supports quality interventions to increase the capacity of local women to prevent conflict, respond to crises and emergencies, and seize key peacebuilding opportunities.
In May-July 2023, the project conducted training for women interested in starting a social enterprise. 69 participants were selected, of whom 47 successfully completed the training program.

After completing the training, the participants:

• Learned how to create creative and profitable business ideas
• Learned about social entrepreneurship and realized that you can help others without additional effort;
• Learned about effective business process planning; overcame the fear of abbreviations such as FOP, LLC, PJSC, PrJSC;
• We worked out a marketing strategy in detail;
• Learned about the possibilities of attracting financing for business;

After the training, the women had the opportunity to participate in a competition for financial support. In the first selection, in August, 65 applications were submitted. After technical selection, expert evaluation, and interviews, 20 social entrepreneurship ideas were supported. Unfortunately, two participants refused to receive the funds and participate further. Therefore, an additional competition was held and two more participants were selected from the new 13 applications using the same procedure.

The winners had the opportunity to attend an offline conference in Ternopil and meet each other. During the event, the women improved their knowledge of social entrepreneurship, learned about the next steps in the program and the rules for working with the financial support received.

So far, 20 women entrepreneurs have received financial support. We provide expert support to participants upon their request. The consultations include expert support from an accountant, lawyer, marketer, as well as experts in sewing, restaurant business, etc. About 125 consultations have already been held.

Each participant receives individual mentoring support. Mentors support and inspire them to go through the process of implementing their own social entrepreneurship.

An important part of the program is the participation of women in the Giving Circle.

A “Giving Circle” is a form of philanthropic activity in which a group of people come together to make a financial contribution and determine how these funds will be distributed among charitable organizations or projects.
Giving circle participants usually discuss current philanthropic needs, make decisions about how to allocate funds, and track the results of their investments in social entrepreneurship. This form allows participants to jointly choose the projects they want to support, and it creates an effective community that can have a significant impact on society. Entrepreneurs from our program have already formed a Giving Circle.