Our purpose is to strengthen the social innovation community through the insight and experience of elder social entrepreneurs
We’ll all face the challenges of succession planning, leadership, dealing with finances and looking after our wellbeing. Insight is our bank of wisdom for social entrepreneurs by social entrepreneurs - a website containing a wealth of experience as people share how they navigate social entrepreneurship.
What We Do:
We engage with the social entrepreneur community and beyond through webinars, workshops and more. We have face to face events at our partners conferences. We also plan to offer mentoring services soon.
A bank of wisdom for social entrepreneurs by social entrepreneurs, covering vital topics from succession to leadership and money to wellbeing. Through articles, podcast episodes and webinar recordings we share the wisdom of elders of the social innovation community (experienced social entrepreneurs of any age), supporting you by highlighting the common opportunities and pitfalls of working in this space. Become a member to receive Insight Highlight emails, updates, news and more (it’s free). See our simple membership form.
We run webinars on vital, but often overlooked, topics including succession and planning, board management and financial sustainability - to name just a few. Our main focus areas are succession / transition, leadership, money and the wellbeing of social innovators.
Friendship Bench
We are proud to partner with Friendship Bench Zimbabwe to provide a Friendship Bench for social entrepreneurs at some of the key conferences in the calendar (Ashoka ChangeMakers Summit 2024 and Skoll World Forum 2025 and 2026). It’s an opportunity for social innovators to seek advice and support from elders of our community (experienced social innovators of any age). They can bring any issues or opportunities they want to discuss, from succession planning to money worries, leadership opportunities to wellbeing concerns. Anything that is on their mind. Read our Friendship Bench SWF 2025 Report.
Events
We hold live gatherings / workshops during key conferences - these have included Skoll Foundation and Ashoka events. Look out for news of our next sessions by following us on our LinkedIn.
A special mentoring service will be offered to social entrepreneurs in 2026. In the meantime, if you are interested in making an enquiry please contact katelynne@elderscouncil.net
Social entrepreneurs and the Ashoka Europe team gather in Aix-en-Provence (France) in September 2019 for the inaugural formation of the Elders Council for Social Entrepreneurs.
“Peer learning and mentorship are by far the most valuable resources to a high potential social entrepreneur. There is nothing like the story of a challenge overcome, or a failure that led to a key insight. It’s crucial to have a space for these conversations!”
Jim Fruchterman: Founder and previous longtime CEO of Benetech.
