Capacity-building for regenerative enterprises

👉🏽 This story is developed as part of the Doughnut Economics for Policymakers guide.

Governments can offer targeted capacity-building support for regenerative enterprises through signposting available resources, providing tailored training and capacity-building funding, establishing dedicated agencies with capacity building mandates and facilitating wider support networks. These activities are often part of wider strategies or programmes that aim to promote businesses with positive social and ecological impacts. 

Overview

Regenerative enterprises have distinct capacity-building needs that cannot be met through conventional business support designed for profit-maximising models. Some governments are taking actions to help fill these capacity gaps in support of these enterprises’ focus on social and ecological impacts alongside financial sustainability. Examples include: 

• Signposting available resources: Some governments have developed online repositories to help social enterprises find support more easily. Ireland’s Social Enterprise Supports Table collates training and funding support from both government and civil society organisations. Scotland commissioned the mapping of diverse support for social enterprises with search and filter functions. The EU compiles an overview of different online learning materials for social enterprises. Malaysia has a social enterprise portal collating available incentives and programs whilst providing a directory for registered social enterprises. 
• Providing tailored training: Mexico City provides technical support and training to cooperatives. India offers social enterprises mentorship, legal advice, and IT support. Scotland has an online learning hub and one-to-one business support for social enterprises, community groups and charities. Bratislava and Košice (Slovak Republic) support social enterprises through mentoring and networking services. 
• Funding capacity building: Malaysia offers dedicated funds to support capacity building for social enterprises. South Africa funds business development support for cooperatives. Canada provides training funds for social enterprises and for initiatives that foster Indigenous entrepreneurship. Diverse EU grants are targeted at social enterprise capacity building. 
• Establishing dedicated agencies: These agencies often have a wide mandate to support government strategies for promoting specific types of enterprises, with capacity building as a core function. Examples include: Poland’s Social Economy Support centres,  Rwanda’s Cooperative Agency, South Korea's Social Enterprise Promotion Agency, and Thailand’s Social Enterprise Promotion Office. 
• Facilitating support networks: Athens repurposed its municipal market into a social enterprise hub and made the space rent-free for five years. Barcelona provides grants to foster collaborations among cooperatives. The EU funds and promotes various networks that support social enterprises across Europe, such as Eucid. 

Implementation

Capacity building is usually implemented as a component of wider efforts to foster regenerative enterprises such as dedicated strategies, funding programs, and making public procurement consider social or ecological impacts or work intentionally with regenerative enterprises. Governments at all levels can implement these capacity-building approaches, from local (such as in Mexico City) to supranational (such as in the EU).

Many governments co-fund or co-manage these capacity-building initiatives with diverse partners, such as international organisations or local business networks. Governments often provide grants to network organisations that then deliver capacity-building services, leveraging existing expertise and community connections.

Impacts

As capacity-building activities are often implemented as part of wider programmes, their specific impacts can be harder to isolate from other interventions.

Scotland’s Just Enterprise capacity-building program is one of the most thoroughly evaluated. The latest evaluation for 2023-2025 shows that 38% of supported clients moved to a higher income bracket and 23% reduced grant dependency. The support also helped create or retain around 200 jobs. Through the training, founders reported increased confidence, better planning, and quicker incorporation. Furthermore, over 90% were satisfied with the received support, and minority groups and rural enterprises showed high uptake. The government also benefited through £417 gross value added for every £1 of government investment.

Challenges

• Fragmented and hard-to-navigate support landscape: Whilst many countries offer capacity building, the absence of comprehensive and easily accessible directories means resources may not be used to their full potential, particularly by smaller organisations or those in rural or remote areas.
• Unclear definitions and legal ambiguity: Without clear definitions of what types of enterprises governments seek to support, government agencies may struggle to design and target support measures effectively. Different definitions and legal forms can also create confusion about who qualifies for capacity-building support.
• Funding gaps and sustainability concerns: Funding for capacity building remains relatively limited compared to the need, especially given that conventional business support and education systems often lack the expertise to provide appropriate support and training for regenerative enterprises.
• Contextual barriers to transferring successful models: Each locality can have different legal competencies, stakeholder landscapes, and resource availability, making it difficult to replicate even proven approaches.
• Need for flexibility and complementarity with other policy approaches: Capacity-building offers need to be easy to access and flexible whilst being complemented by other support mechanisms, such as finance and market access, to create meaningful impact.

Reference and further reading

• The EU Social Economy Gateway is a central EU point that informs about country ecosystems, learning materials and how to apply for funding. 
• OECD's report maps supportive policies for Social Economy in Europe including local and national approaches to capacity building (2025).