Asian Venture Philanthropy Network

20 April 2015

Mrs Patricia Lau

Deputy Head, Efficiency Unit
Chief Secretary for Administrations Office
Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government

Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship Development Fund

Agenda
Government Support and
Landscape
SIE Fund Overview
Objective and positioning
Cross-sector collaborations
Strategy going forward

Government Support in the Last Decade

Provide over HK$8.7bn in seed grants for projects
Enhance public understanding e.g. SE Summit
Promote cross-sector collaboration
Nurture more social entrepreneurs e.g. SE
Challenge

Current Landscape
SE projects
368
320

406

329

269

Capital sources

457
(70%)

2008-09 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14

Social objectives

Non-charity operator
of SE projects
(181%)

disadv. = disadvantaged

* Published by the Hong Kong Council of Social Service and The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Wish list from Social Entrepreneurs

48%

53%
More training
opportunities
provided to staff

50%

Enhance
public
education

Organisations &
corporations adopt
responsible
procurement
policy

43%
Increase
financing
channels

They expect more supporting measures to build up

their capacity
* According to the Hong Kong Social Enterprise Landscape Study 2012-13

Agenda
Government Support and
Landscape
SIE Fund Overview
Objective and positioning
Cross-sector collaborations
Strategy going forward

SIE Fund Who are we?

Commission on Poverty

Special Needs Groups

Task Force

Community Care Fund

Task Force

Youth Education,
Employment and
Training Task Force

Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship

Development Fund Task Force (TF)

SIE Fund What is it?

A HK$500 million Trust Fund intended to tackle poverty
and prevent social exclusion through social innovation
and entrepreneurship

Objectives of the Fund

To establish and support processes,
schemes and experiments that attract, inspire
and nurture social entrepreneurship to
introduce and develop innovations that create

social impact and build social capital to

support poverty relief in Hong Kong

SIE Fund What is our position?

We see ourselves as a catalyst to
Build sustainable platforms in community
Stimulate cross-sector collaboration
Build bigger impact and not to crowd out

Experiment, incubate and implement innovative ideas

Share and learn from experience

SIE Fund How it works?

Fund initiatives under 3 priority areas

Research

Capacity building

Innovative programmes

Engage intermediaries to design and implement

Create flagship projects

Outreach to various sectors and public

Cross sector collaboration

SIE Funds Intermediaries

Expected Outcome
2,700
700
100
participants ideas projects

Cross sector collaboration

SIE Funds Intermediaries
For Innovative Programmes

Scale-up
Start-up
Prototype
Idea
generation

Other forms or funding (e.g.

loans, equity) will be explored
in future tranches

Matching in cash
or in kind

Cross sector collaboration

Food Support Flagship
Engage 40+ participants to co-create ideas
Food support operators
Government

Businesses

SIE Fund
Task Force
Sharing Session
&
Experience Visits

Professionals
Idea Generation
Workshop

Recommendations
considered by SIE
Fund Task Force

Cross sector collaboration

Shared Value
Business
opportunities
and challenges

Social
needs

Shared Value

Business
assets and
expertise

Educate and build

awareness amongst
businesses
Support integration of
shared value into
existing businesses
Implement business
plans as demonstrations

Cross sector collaboration

Outreach campaign
Social Innovation Video Competition for
Secondary School Students
20 sponsors / supporting organisations
9 speakers sharing in workshops or other
events
13 adjudicators
Involving NGOs, social entrepreneurs,
academics, businesses and representatives
from media, travel, film industries

Strategy Going Forward

Sector /
Segment
Leaders

Results Intermedy
/ Flagship

Shared
Value

Social
Innovation
Hub

Idea /
Solution
Bank
Raise
Awareness
& Support

Lesson learnt
1. Many property are underutilized.
2. Many landlords want to optimize their property for the needy.
Neither the market nor the government have provided them
with a mechanism.

3. Neither affordable housing nor social work alone is effective.

Social enterprises

Many social enterprises in Hong Kong

few that scale

Milestones

Idea
Entrepreneur has
idea for a business
model that
addresses a social
issue.

Proof of
concept
Idea iteratively
tested
Business model is
created and refined.

Ready for
early scale
Success in a few
locations with a
significant number
of users and it is
time to replicate the
model on a small
scale

SE pipeline

Ready for
breakout scale
The SE has proven
its ability to
replicate and is now
ready for mass
scaling up.

End-game
The SE has achieved
scale and it now
needs to implement
its end-game (see
end-game
appendix).

Mind the Gap!

Hong Kongs growing social enterprise ecosystem (not exhaustive)

Social enterprises

venture philanthropy
(no return expected)

impact investing
(return expected)

Investor interest

the gap
SE pipeline

Idea

Proof of
concept

Ready for
early scale

Ready for
breakout scale

End-game

Impact investors are waiting for

deals that do not exist. Without
significant investment from venture
philanthropists, a gap in the pipeline
will remain.

Helping SEs at this stage

requires significant
capacity building. Returns
are typically not expected.

Venture philanthropy (investing without expectation of return) is needed to

address market failure and to inject needed capital to increase pipeline of
investable SEs.
3

Building an Impact Eco-system

Social enterprises

Investor interest
venture philanthropy
(no return expected)

impact investing
(return expected)

SE pipeline

Idea

Proof of
concept

Ready for
early scale

Ready for
breakout scale

SOW Asias Value Proposition:

Closing the gap by being a trusted partner and investor of choice to SEs scaling their impact in
Hong Kong and throughout Asia.
1) Deep understanding and empathy of the needs of SEs and their teams; 2) Strong network
and partnerships across the ecosystem which SOW Asia can coordinate; 3) Flexible financing

End-game