We’ll all face the challenges of exit planning, seeking to safeguard the sustainability of what we’ve built, asking questions about our impact and where we go next. Join us as we explore these questions together.
Join our global network of social entrepreneurs to support one another, share your hard-won wisdom and learn new insights from those who are facing the same challenges. Members can be any age whether you are an elder contributing wisdom or you are seeking to learn from those who have been there and done it before.
Social entrepreneurs gathering in Aix-en-Provence, France.
We share the insights of elders in the social innovation community, supporting individuals and strengthening the wider sector. The individual assistance could include mentoring, advice about succession, transition and boards or other critical challenges.
Please join us. We are an open, friendly and supportive community. We want to share your wisdom and support you.
Wietse van der Werf
“Some of the most celebrated social innovators of the 20th century are now bought together in the Elders Council for Social Entrepreneurs, to celebrate this diversity but at the same time, to explore and identify what common challenges we all face. As a young budding social entrepreneur, learning from the experiences of the elders has been hugely valuable and has helped me reconsider my own steps going forward on my changemaking path.”
Wietse van der Werf: Founder, Sea Ranger Service.
“Twenty years ago, I created a non profit institution, to promote the “pleasure of reading” in Chilean lower income children. As an elementary teacher, I realized that good readers have the best tool to become good students and develop their capabilities and interests. Covid19 forced us to close the Foundation, putting an end to the contracts of our 110 workers (including myself).
With these very difficult decisions that I have made I very much value the Elders Council for Social Entrepreneurs as a place to come where I know my colleagues will understand the problems I have been facing with sympathy and support for me.”
Verónica Abud Elementary Teacher, Master in Education. Social Entrepreneur of Latin America 2009 / Schwab Foundation
