Enterprise Fund
The Give2Asia Enterprise Fund invests in business skills training, grassroots micro-financing and social entrepreneurs who are working to make their vision a reality. The fund is flexible and responsive to creative opportunities across Asia, and pooled contributions to the fund will be used to bring forth economic and social change.
Around the world, small enterprises play a significant role in strengthening families and communities. Often owned and operated by people who are poor or just barely above the poverty line, these small businesses collectively employ large numbers of people, are a significant part of the GDP, and can be the initial stepping stone toward building larger enterprises. Numerous examples of innovative entrepreneurs abound, people who had a small start with a big idea and went on to change entire sectors of work. They include Mohammad Yunus of Grameen Bank, Steve Jobs of Apple Computers, and Wendy Knopp of Teach for America.
Social entrepreneurs apply their innovative ideas and business acumen to tackle social causes, often working hand-in-hand with, or as part of, the for-profit sector.
The importance of these entrepreneurs is not be under-estimated. The individual risk-taking involved in entrepreneurship is a skill that must be learned, and existing business skills training and access to microfinance does not meet current demand. While small enterprises and entrepreneurs are helping entire communities develop jobs and critical resources, more are needed to tackle Asia’s many challenges.
Investing in the Give2Asia Enterprise Fund is an opportunity to help foster innovation and economic development, and support local leaders in Asia who are creating change for their communities.
The Enterprise Fund will create a portfolio of grants designed to nurture new and existing entrepreneurs and their businesses. Because this is an emerging field, there will be more experimentation, some great success and some projects that just don’t turn out as expected. That is what the entrepreneurial spirit is all about. The Enterprise Fund will support projects such as:
1) Entrepreneurial education for teens and adults
2) Projects conceived and managed by social entrepreneurs
3) Grassroots microfinance programs
Sebastian Marot arrived in Cambodia in 1994 on his way to Japan. Troubled by the neglect of street children in a country being flooded with foreign assistance, he and two friends opened a small drop-in center with a school attached, calling it Mith Samlanh, which means "good friends" in Khmer.
Mith Samlanh is a pioneer for its approach to empowering street children. It was the first to work with street children from a developmental and sustainable perspective rather than a perspective of charity and victimhood. Today, it serves an average of 1,800 street children per day. In addition to training young adults to become mechanics, cooks, hairdressers, etc., Marot’s organization has started restaurants operated by students and whose profits support Mith Samlanh programs. Over the past decade Sebastian has introduced the Mith Samlanh model to other countries in Asia and the Americas through an international umbrella called Friends International, which has offices in the US and Europe, and its main field office in Cambodia.
In 2007, Marot was honored with a Skoll Foundation Social Entrepreneurship Award for his groundbreaking work. Friends International is a Give2Asia grantee, and the Skoll Foundation is one of Give2Asia’s strategic partners.
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New Opportunities for Enterprise 