Reach for Change’s mission is to find and support social entrepreneurs with innovative ideas and methods that can improve the world by removing obstacles to play. Play is a vital aspect of every child’s development and we are confident that even in the most depressive environments and hazardous situations, play can be a key to the future, empowering children and young people.
Our selected social entrepreneurs – our Playmakers – are invited in to our incubator. The incubator is not a physical space, but a context where the social entrepreneurs get help to in turn help as many children and young people as possible.
In order to reach as many children and youth as possible, Reach for Change supports social entrepreneurs and help them realize their world-changing ideas. The selected Playmakers are offered the tools and support needed to develop and scale up their venture. They receive salary funding, but also mentoring from experienced businessmen and women. All Playmakers get two or three Advisors from our partners in the Kinnevik group. The access to expertise in business development, marketing, law, and communication helps them start a sustainable venture and grow into their full potential. We empower early stage entrepreneurs. We invest both funds and other recourses, and the return on this investment will be the growth from great ideas to sustainable operations reaching an ever-increasing number of children and youth. The first year, 2010, the count was over 300 000 children, in Sweden alone.In the beginning of 2010, Reach for Change was still only a good idea, a project of Hugo Stenbecks Stiftelse’s that would soon to launch its very first campaign. But by the end of the year Reach for Change was an, international foundation, funded by Kinnevik – working on two continents.
The need for incubators
In its initial launch Reach for Change received almost 1900 applications and made waves through out all major media outlets in Sweden. On January 11, 2010 Reach for Change was launched in Sweden with a multi-channel campaign. The aim was to advocate for social entrepreneurship by spreading the word about the Reach for Change challenge.
In December we ran a small ad campaign in Metro leading up to the MTG Christmas Concert in benefit for Reach for Change, held December 8th. The Christmas Concert was broadcoasted on channel TV3 December 23rd. 359 000 viewed the show.
Sara Damber | Reach for Change | Sweden
Reach for Change website | @sara_damber