The Solutions Fund Effekt , a joint initiative of foundations,Effekt social initiatives with growth potential.
Birgitta Forsström, Erik Båsk, and Ari Evwaraye meet in Helsinki in the fall, on the eve The Solutions Fund . The topic of discussion is the need for new, joint financing activities.
"We have found that traditional grant funding is not always the most appropriate form of funding for activities that can be scaled up and have a different funding logic. Such a logic can provide operators with a long-term framework for action and deliver greater societal benefits." says Birgitta Forsström, CEO of the Brita Maria Renlund Memorial Foundation.
“Project funding alone is often short-term. We want to support new ways of producing culture in an impactful way, and this is one way to do that,” adds Erik Båsk, Alfred Kordelin Foundation .
Effekt is complementary to traditional grant schemes and not a substitute for them
The combined annual grants from the Brita Maria Renlund Memorial Foundation and the Kordelin Foundation will remain at around €20 million.
Ari Evwaraye, the future CEO of Effekt, has worked as a strategy manager at the Ministry of the Interior and previously at StartMore Social Impact HUB on a social innovation incubator program. He says that many social entrepreneurs and organizations have solutions that have the potential for wider adoption.
Birgitta Forsström from the Brita Maria Renlund Memorial Foundation, who will also serve as chair of Effekt's board, adds: "The goal is to build long-term, sustainable operations that can continue to promote development and funding that has a social impact."
Evwaraye emphasizes that the activities are transparent, making it easy to assess whether the company has succeeded in creating added value. This is more challenging in the context of traditional grant funding. He sees the fund's first year as a period of shared learning. "Cooperation is key. Together with various actors, we want to explore how and where we can be involved in creating systemic change."