Dreams and dilemma's of Donut Entrepreneurs

How to organise a Donut business? The Amsterdam Dealmaking program supports community initiatives to work on their businesses, thus gaining financial and organizational stability. The Donut entrepreneurs foster collaborations between community organizations and their partners. These organizations help many people, try to save Mother Earth and… are almost always struggling for their own survival. The craft of 'Donut dealmaking' is thus essential for community initiatives: they themselves learn how to organise their own sustainable growth and financial stability. 

October 22nd 2026, during Global Donut Days Donut, entrepreneurs from Istanbul and Amsterdam met to share their dilemma’s and dreams. 

Istanbul Eco-Designers Lab (Yasemin Kose, Ceylan Usaki Erali) 

question: How to work in a collective space with other people? How to set up the company ownership?

Amsterdam Dreamstreet - Mama Louise (Jeditah van der Meulen)

Question: How to organise the business part of your social business: assignments, sponsoring, merch?

Brasa Park Tea Home (Ching-ling Hsiao) 

Question: When money comes in, how to deal with it justly and evenly?

Textile Network (Zinzi Stasse) 

Question: Social entrepreneurs are always personally committed to their work and people living in the neighborhoods. This can cause conflict and fatique (burn-out). How to deal with this?

Participants were all pleased and inspired 

‘I felt the Askinar format worked well - nice to have an informal, dynamic conversation based in people's day-to-day work. There's also nothing like peer support - learning and contributing to what others are facing, how they're addressing their challenges. The ideas were great too - using samples to get design and costings right, and sharing what's worked in making peace with founder power and how to distribute and share it well.’ 

‘It’s good to acknowledge our various roles. I can’t always be a nice person, I am a founder too.’ 

‘We are dealing with money and power, and should be aware of that.’ 

Sharing ideas, suggestions and advice

Istanbul Circular Design Center and ownership structures

Yasemin Köse outlined the Istanbul Circular Design Center, focusing on circular design practices and industry connections. Participants explored alternative ownership models and investor equity percentages for the circular design center. Participants discussed steward ownership structures as a viable alternative model, referencing Bosch and Carlsberg.

• A summary of different Enterprise Ownership models, with good visual summaries on p 21 and p77 https://www.transformfinance.org/alternative-ownership-enterprises-report
• On Steward Ownership - a really good introduction here https://steward-ownership.com/en with short videos and other helpful resources

Revenue models and funding for community spaces

Jeditah van der Meulen discussed funding challenges for Mama Louisa, a community center in Amsterdam North. Zinzi Stasse proposed selling B2B relational gifts and team-building workshops to fund community programs. Participants explored cooperative membership models requiring weekly volunteer hours in exchange for affordable goods.

One approach to fundraising in the community for local businesses, from Belgium https://doughnuteconomics.org/stories/citizenfund-doughnut-design-case-study

Community tea house initiative and financial distribution

Ching-ling Hsiao presented the community tea house project in Amsterdam Southeast to build local networks. Participants discussed the challenge of fairly distributing funds among volunteers, builders, and professional staff. It is fair to acknowledge the pay can be higher for various roles and tasks.

Personal-private balance and burnout in social initiatives

Zinzi Stasse highlighted the challenge of maintaining personal-private balance and avoiding burnout in social entrepreneurship. Ching-ling Hsiao suggested celebrating past milestones, taking dedicated weeks off, and practicing democratic compromise. Jeditah van der Meulen emphasized setting boundaries and distinguishing between ‘kind neighbor’ and founder roles.

Power dynamics and leadership roles in social enterprises

Pins Brown noted that organizations frequently lack transparency regarding power structures and decision-making authority. Pins Brown observed that cultural norms often encourage women to desenter themselves from leadership roles.

• Combining diverse individual strengths enables communities to create novel ideas rather than fixating on individual ownership.
• Acknowledged the importance of embracing founder responsibilities and avoiding excessive modesty in leadership roles.
• Yasemin Köse highlighted the necessity of establishing equitable and ethical ownership sharing models in social entrepreneurship.

Community networking and future engagement

Proposed holding a follow-up meeting in 3 months to review progress and expand the community network.