This time of year is as busy as interesting. We are currently selecting participants for the next SE Outreach Accelerator program starting in April next year. A capacity building program for international Social entrepreneurs that seems to be more popular than ever!

This year we’ve received a record-breaking 890 applications from more than 90 countries. There is some geographical expansion as well: about 40 new countries are represented this time.

We are also happy to notice progress towards a more gender balanced pool of candidates: about one third of them are women compared to 20% last year.

The development stage of the social enterprises is quite advanced: more than half of our applicants have already tested their concepts and are focusing on implementing or scaling up their ventures.

Although we are grateful for the overwhelming interest shown this year, we are still only able to select 8 participants. After the first round only 78 candidates, out of all 890, were invited to the second application phase. From there 17 social entrepreneurs will take part in the last stage – interviews. The final 8 and future participants of the SE Outreach Accelerator will receive their acceptance letters on December 19.

SE Forum is dedicated to ensure the selection process is holistic and each application is evaluated within its unique context by a team of high professional experts.

We want to send a great deal of gratitude to all the applicants who have put in effort and heart into their applications. Although we are excited to know who will participate in the fantastic training program in Stockholm next year, we also believe that many other applicants have a strong potential in scaling up their contributions towards positive change in the world!