Anne Salter

Anne is a development professional. She has undertaken a number of research projects as part of the Ashley Insight team with clients including the World Bank Innovations team, Business Call to Action and the Global Innovation Fund. Anne has worked with the Federation of Social Organisations in Costa Rica, Ashoka Mexico and Social Enterprise UK.

School for Social Entrepreneurs opens new location in Delhi

Inclusive business models and strategy
India
South Asia
11. Feb 2016

The School for Social Entrepreneurs (SSE) empowers people from all backgrounds to create positive social change. Their courses help individuals start, sustain, and scale social enterprises, charities and community projects. With successful schools in Australia, Canada, Ireland and the UK, I spoke to Leonie Jarrett, Communications Manager, about their newly opened school in India.

Tell us a bit about the recent expansion. Why India?

We believe that there is a need to support individuals from all backgrounds to implement sustainable solutions to complex issues of inequality, social exclusion, poverty and deprivation. The expansion into India is our first step into Asia and our first into a developing country, marking a new chapter for us. We are thrilled to witness that The Indian Government has recognised this and enacted various legislations to initiate and continually support development. In developing a School for Social Entrepreneurs in India, we intend to contribute to and support this vision.

We saw a gap in India for non-academic practical support for social entrepreneurs and felt that it was a great time to build on our UK partnership with PwC and jointly open the new School for Social Entrepreneurs in Delhi. Having a partnership with a large corporate like PwC immediately gives the new School stability and access to vital resources, PwC will also be providing mentors for the inaugural cohort of students and have additionally supported SSE India with start-up funding.

How does the SSE model work?

We have steadily expanded regionally and internationally using a social franchise model to create a network of schools and are excited to welcome SSE India to the network. This network of schools has produced a body of like-minded people, committed to improving the world and exercising leadership that builds social capital. These efforts have empowered communities across the globe to help themselves.

Our social franchise model relies on us developing strong partnerships in the new areas and intentionally avoids parachuting in staff who do not understand the culture or environment of the new location. Using such a model means that expansion can take longer than if we used a branch structure but we strongly believe this approach creates the deepest impact as it leads to the delivery of credible, locally led and culturally relevant programmes of support.

Have you adapted how you work for the Indian social enterprise market?

We have spent the past twelve months building a foundation of knowledge and refining our approach so it works the best it can for the Indian context. We know from experience that social entrepreneurship decentralises power and leads to the creation of grassroots social change, something we feel is very pertinent in the Indian context where economic development is yet to reach the majority of the population.

The social enterprise space is already thriving in India and we have spent time reviewing this and seeing where SSE will fit in. There are many great examples where business approaches and innovation are already creating social change - for example Goonj in Delhi - which is vital for us to thrive because our programmes are practitioner led, so we rely on having experienced social entrepreneurs available to speak about their experiences of starting and running a social organisation.

What opportunities are you offering to Indian social enterprises?

We are currently looking for applicants for our inaugural programme. Over the last 18 years we have supported individual social entrepreneurs via our practical courses. Our programmes of personal and professional development help individuals with ideas for new social impact organisations by building their leadership and business skills.

Our ethos is that anyone can be a social entrepreneur and we always focus on the individual’s potential to crate social change, not their academic track-record. To start with, we are looking to work with 20 social entrepreneurs in Northern India over a year, we will look to learn from this pilot and later replicate to other locations in India. We are keen to support individuals who have innovations and radical ideas that will lead to social change and opportunity for disadvantaged communities. We are currently looking for our first 20 participants but we are also on the lookout for practitioners who can contribute their time, skills and expertise to our first learning programme in Delhi. If you are interested in getting involved or finding out more, please get in touch.

Find out more about the SSE programme in Northern India here.