We continue our review of useful publications, but not mentioned in the main chapters of the our guide as they are either too general or too sectoral to fit into a specific section.

Don’t forget to point out other papers you find particularly interesting!

The topic ofsocial entrepreneurship is particularly felt in our area: we have already devoted some of our interventions to important initiatives in this area, such as the regional strategy WECARE and the European competition on social innovation .

We therefore propose a specific in-depth study on this topic: a Practical guide to designing and implementing social finance initiatives , making appropriate use of the typical tools of this sector and the characteristics of the target market.

The guide is presented by the Directorate General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion of the European Commission and explains in detail the different steps required to create and operate a social enterprise: the analysis of needs, the sector and the market; the definition of a viable social and entrepreneurial project; the structuring of an investment and intervention strategy; the launch of a pilot phase, its evaluation and its extension to a wider market.

The title of the document (textually, “A Cookbook for Social Finance”) is indicative of the “slant” of the guide, which is particularly geared toward understanding the practical and operational aspects of social entrepreneurship.