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Initiative

Programme to support social and young entrepreneurship

Programme to support social and young entrepreneurship
SUBMITTED FROM:

PwC

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PwC: About us



Objective Action

PwC’s purpose is to build trust in society and solve important problems. Our purpose is the foundation of our Corporate Responsibility programme that focuses on social entrepreneurship within the framework of SDG#8 – "Decent work and economic growth".    

We aim to help create sustainable start-ups for the benefit of the Greek economy and society, as well as contribute to reducing unemployment. We want to empower young people with drive and passion for creativity, and help them implement innovative ideas with social and business value.

Our goal is also to provide our own people with volunteering opportunities to share their knowledge helping start-ups and NGOs, while gaining valuable lessons from such experiences and become more open-minded.

 

Target Audience

  • Incubators and start-ups
  • PwC employees
  • Not for Profit (NPOs) and NGOs
  • Society at large
 

Duration

The programme started in July 2015 and has a long-term perspective.


Description

The programme has two pillars:

  1. Social entrepreneur: Help social enterprises improve their operations through pro bono services and mentoring. Leverage and develop know-how that enables these enterprises to become sustainable and successful. 
  2. Support activities for the common good, organised by social start-ups and incubators. 

During the last three years we have implemented the following activities that have long-term goals and continue in 2018:

1. Social entrepreneur

  • We provided accounting and legal consulting pro bono services, as well as training to the start-ups and social enterprises of e.g.g. incubator 
  • We provided pro bono services to the start-ups and social enterprises incubator Orange Grove. We mentored some founding members of Orange Grove start-ups, such as Vitabroad that promotes Greek medical tourism and social enterprise Bloode aiming to increase blood donors in Greece. 
  • We delivered training presentations at Social Dynamo, a space for civil society capacity building, offering learning opportunities, professional support and networking to NGOs and groups of active citizens. 
  • We assigned a student group of EMST Business School of Berlin to conduct a study that compared Berlin and Athens start-ups and analysed their success factors. We leverage that study in our mentoring.

2. Support activities for the common good, organised by social start-ups and incubators.

  • We support Bloode through sponsoring their blood donations for socially vulnerable groups, as well as pro bono consulting services. 
  • We started the volunteers support programme of AFI (Action Finance Initiative) and NPO aiming to introduce microcredits in Greece and help unemployed people create their own jobs, as well as to improve the self-employment legal and institutional framework in our country. We have created programmes within AFI’s premises for six-month volunteering that continues in a long-term basis.

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Impact on Society

During the last three years:

  • We provided pro bono mentoring and consulting services of total duration more than 10,000 hours to start-ups, social enterprises and incubators. 
  • We supported the social enterprise Bloode to organise nine blood donations benefitting 12 NGOs caring for children who are cancer patients, deprived elderly, adult cancer patients and other vulnerable social groups. 
  • A PwC Manager is based at AFI premises volunteering his time to add value both to AFI and to the start-ups it supports. This offer to AFI will last for six months and will continue with another volunteer. 
  • Our programme was successful because of our people’s contribution. Today we have a list of approximately 100 volunteers, ranging from young associates to high-level executives who share their skills and experience. We recognised their devotion through a special internal communication campaign and a celebration event in July 2017 in order to encourage others by their example. 
  • More social enterprises and incubators approached us to request our professional advice. After assessing the proposals, we plan to expand our programme by supporting with mentoring and training NBG Business Seeds and social enterprise Humane. 


Initiative Location

PwC, Orange Grove, AFI, e.g.g. and Social Dynamo premises. In addition, blood donations were organised at Technopolis and EBEA incubator.


Working with Organization

  • AFI 
  • e.g.g. 
  • Orange Grove
  • Social Dynamo 

Workers Participation

Our objective is to help our employees understand the value of our programme and encourage them to become the driving force for its implementation. We run internal communication campaigns leveraging all tools of print, electronic and social media channels within PwC.

We organise events to get our people acquainted with NGOs and social enterprises in our premises. We also invite our employees to attend various start-up pitching and incubator events.

Our employees participate in the programme in different ways:

  • By mentoring, coaching and providing pro bono consulting services to founding members of start-ups and social enterprises. 
  • By delivering seminars and presentations at incubators, NGOs and social enterprises. 
  • By providing pro bono accounting, legal, audit and consulting services to start-ups, NGOs and social enterprises. 
  • By volunteering as blood donors in initiatives taken by PwC organised by Bloode to support vulnerable social groups. 

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Benefits for Οrganization

  • Our programme strengthened not only the positive image of PwC Greece but also of our country in PwC’s global network. Our programme has received honorary distinctions as best practice by PwC in Europe and globally. It is presented in PwC’s Global Annual Review 2016 social section, thus contributing to the positive image of PwC Greece in PwC’s global network. Our programme also promotes the efforts for supporting social entrepreneurship in Greece. 
  • The programme strengthened the bonds between our firm and our people. Our corporate culture nurtures volunteerism and encourages our people to be part of activities for the common good. Through this programme, they have the opportunity to participate not only as blood donors but also by helping social enterprises, start-ups and NGOs to become sustainable and successful. In this way, we enhance our relation with our people since we share the same values and work together for the common good. 
  • Our programme enhanced the positive image of PwC in Greece. Ever since it started, we continuously communicate with our target audience. The number of our volunteers increased steadily. Our programme has received important honorary distinctions in Corporate Social Responsibility. As a result, it strengthened PwC’s positive image as a socially responsible leader and purpose lead values driven organisation.



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