Esade and BBK launch a European community of practice for social impact
BBK president, Xabier Sagredo, and Esade Director General, Koldo Echebarria, have signed an agreement to launch a European community of practice for social impact. This confirms the two entities’ commitment to developing ventures that make a social impact, increasingly necessary in order to further the measurement and management of social impact and so ensure responsible corporate management.
This venture aims to pinpoint and share good practices in the realm of foundations, increase transparency in this sector and encourage the creation of knowledge and co-operation between prestigious European foundations at different stages of development as regards the management and measurement of impact. This community is 100% online and envisages six meetings a year. EVPA, AEF and the SERES foundation have helped select the participating entities.
The community consists of entities from the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Spain, Holland, Portugal, Belgium, Sweden and Russia and others. The community also has a section for state-level foundations, with interests and casuistry of their own. The first meeting of the state-level community of practice took place on December 10 with the participation of benchmark foundations.
The community was established as a result of the findings of the study entitled “From impact measuring to impact learning: the learning pathways of European foundations” led by professor Lisa Hehenberger, head of the Center for Social Impact – a centre forming part of the Esade Entrepreneurship Institute for the research and dissemination of knowledge about the impact economy – and the researchers Leonora Buckland and Deborah Gold, with BBK support and help from AEF.
The community of practice was created as a safe on-line space for dealing with complex issues related to the management of impact and foundations, and furthering knowledge of this sector by sharing experiences and concepts and encouraging open debates. According to professor Hehenberger, “the community will help member foundations measure and manage their impact better. This will generate a greater impact and knowledge applicable to the entire sector.”
The conclusions and lessons learnt in these meetings will be posted on the BBK and Center for Social Impact websites in the forthcoming months, to make this knowledge available to all the foundations and agents interested in measuring impact.
Member foundations
Taking part in the European community are the 4WINGS Foundation, AlphaOmega Foundation, Argidius Foundation, Bertelsmann Stiftung, BMW Foundation Herbert Quandt, Degroof Petercam Foundation, Demeter Foundation, Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, Fondation CHANEL, Fondazione CRT, Fundación Daniel & Nina Carasso, Fundación Once, IDeA Foundation, Impetus, King Baudouin Foundation, “la Caixa” Foundation, Laudes Foundation, NESsT, Norrsken Foundation, Reach for Change, Robert Bosch Stiftung Foundation, Sol Center, The Community Foundation for Northern Ireland, The Robertson Trust and Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Taking part in the Spanish community are Fundación Barça, Fundación Barrié, Fundación Botín, Fundación Carmen Gandarias, Fundación Daniel y Nina Carasso, Fundación Juan Perán – Pikolinos, Fundación Kutxa, Fundación “la Caixa”, Fundación Mahou-San Miguel, Fundación Netri, Fundación ONCE, Fundación Repsol, Fundación Santa María la Real, Fundación Ship2B, Fundación Telefónica, Fundación Vital and Open Value Foundation.
