From 2021–2024, NESsT ran the NESsT-IKEA Social Entrepreneurship Poland & Romania Accelerator Program to support socially impactful enterprises to scale their operations and create quality employment opportunities for people from marginalized backgrounds who face barriers to securing good jobs. In parallel to this accelerator program, and in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, NESsT launched the NESsT Refugee Employment Initiative – an initiative designed to specifically to address the employment barriers of individuals facing migration and displacement, and seeking safety and security in Poland and Romania.
Supported by IKEA Social Entrepreneurship and in part by Cisco Foundation, this joint acceleration work assisted 20 enterprises in providing 3,900 quality employment opportunities for marginalized groups, including refugees and migrants, people with disabilities, women, at-risk youth, and the LGBTQIA+ community. More than 875 of these jobs were specifically for refugees and migrants, significantly improving their income and job security.
We spoke to our portfolio managers and entrepreneurs in the region to uncover the lessons learned and insights gained from three years of close-up acceleration and collaboration in the region catalyzing wide-ranging, innovative business models and supporting the financial independence and stability of people from diverse backgrounds.
Many of these lessons learned have been integral to the program design of the next iteration of our work in the region alongside our long-standing partners Cisco Foundation and IKEA Social Entrepreneurship. As we embark on this next chapter, the broadened scope of the NESsT Central and Eastern Europe Accelerator program reflects a region with interconnected social, economic, and environmental challenges – some of which we discuss here.
1. Social enterprises lead the way in driving social inclusion, but face higher costs and tougher market challenges
While social enterprises are at the forefront of impact and inclusion, their path is often a lot more demanding than that of traditional businesses. They must manage higher operational and compliance costs, navigate complex regulations, and overcome barriers to financing–all while balancing social impact with financial sustainability.
“Few people realize that in the case of social enterprises, the operating costs are higher than for “traditional” companies. [At Heca], in addition to paying the salary of couriers employed under employment contracts, we also pay, for example, a psychologist who works with them and us. We also have costs that are not visible: an employee in a mental crisis has more absenteeism than an employee who isn’t facing these challenges. While they are on sick leave, someone has to do their work, packages have to be delivered.”
NESsT Case Study: Heca
Polish-based social cooperative Heca supports people with physical and mental disabilities and people experiencing homelessness to access training and quality employment opportunities. It runs diverse business lines including a bicycle courier service, ice-cream shop, and sustainable furniture production.
Photo: Heca, NESsT portfolio enterprise
Upon joining the NESsT portfolio in 2021, Heca received business support and funds to invest in new and accessible equipment for several of its sustainable business lines, increasing the number of job opportunities it could offer to its local community.
NESsT portfolio manager Aneta Sokolowska – who has accompanied Heca on its social impact journey for three years – shares, “Heca has successfully leveraged its proximity to underserved groups in its local community to provide tailored skills training, technology, and ongoing support, directly increasing employability and income growth. We supported Heca in optimizing its business model by balancing revenue, costs, and social impact, while simultaneously providing technical assistance to strengthen its workforce, which includes employees from at-risk group.”
Aneta adds, “As part of its support to portfolio enterprises, NESsT provides recoverable grants that are equity-free and have patient terms, supporting enterprises to meet a personalized payment schedule and to become self-sustainable. This patient approach acknowledges that short-term costs for inclusion lead to significant long-term returns for society and local economies.”
2. The need for a unified narrative
Without a shared understanding or common language, even businesses with aligned missions – from social enterprises, market-driven impactful companies to other mission-driven entities – struggle to connect, collaborate, or leverage each other’s strengths. Very often we observe that social enterprises and the NGO sector exist on one end of the spectrum, prioritizing social impact over profit, while traditional businesses operate on the other, focusing primarily on financial returns. Bridging this divide requires a common framework that fosters mutual understanding, enabling cross-sector partnerships to drive sustainable change.
The absence of this unified narrative often leads to missed opportunities for synergy, whether funding, sharing knowledge, or co-developing solutions to complex systemic problems.
“At NESsT we work with social enterprises and more traditional companies with impact drive – both of which are business entities whose primary purpose is to provide products and services in a market-driven manner and that are also committed to providing quality jobs for marginalized and non-marginalized people while generating positive environmental impact. Despite this, we often see overlapping efforts and wasted resources due to the lack of a unified language. NESsT aims to harness this “missed” potential for collective impact, which is very often diminished when entities work in isolation and siloes.”
To bridge these gaps, our portfolio managers have highlighted the need for a cohesive ecosystem: with common frameworks, inclusive language, and platforms that foster mutual learning and collaboration between traditional social enterprises, socially impactful businesses, and the new generation of impact-driven models.
3. With adequate support, NGOs can thrive with social enterprise models
Our work over 28 years in the acceleration field has shown that NGOs that are mainly grant dependent often face challenges in diversifying their activities and transitioning to or adopting social enterprise models, due to a lack of knowledge, resources, or capacity. Even mission-driven organizations with existing revenue-generating activities often find it difficult to fully optimize and scale their business operations. However, with the right guidance and support, NGOs can unlock the potential of social enterprise models and find the balance between purpose and profit.
“Tailored capacity-building initiatives are crucial to help NGOs and foundations evolve into sustainable social enterprises. This support should be long-term, and focus on operational efficiency, and access to financial and technical resources.”
NESsT Case Study: ALTRNTV
Photo: ALTRNTV, NESsT portfolio enterprise
ALTRNTV, a conscious fashion boutique contributing to the circular economy in Romania, entered the NESsT portfolio in 2021 as an NGO with minimal economic activity. Through strategic planning and tailored support, ALTRNTV created a separate business entity and opened a new shop owned by the parent foundation. The shop operates as a self-sustainable social enterprise, redirecting its profits to the NGO for social purposes. This innovative approach allows ALTRNTV to both support 150 suppliers from marginalized backgrounds, thus creating significant social impact, but also contribute to the NGO’s mission by funding free dental services for children from underserved communities.
“Thanks to the investment from NESsT and IKEA Social Entrepreneurship, we were able to open the ALTRNTV store, create new employment opportunities, and secure essential quality certifications. With their strategic planning and tailored support, we transitioned from a small NGO to establishing a separate business entity. Technical assistance and mentorship have been invaluable in enhancing our production capacity to meet growing demand. Additionally, NESsT’s guidance has helped us measure and document the positive impact we’ve made on the lives of underserved producers and artisans, ensuring our mission remains at the heart of what we do.”
4. Social enterprises have a non-exclusive approach by design
The NESsT Refugee Employment Initiative was launched in 2022 to accelerate companies whose business models specifically supported the long-term employment of refugees. However, the majority of enterprises that joined the portfolio in fact support several marginalized groups that face barriers to securing quality jobs, not only those facing displacement from their home countries.
“The enterprises in our portfolio operate on the ground, close to the communities they serve. They are uniquely attuned to the reality and needs of these groups and the challenges they face – which are inherently complex and interconnected. Their strategies and business models often reflect this by addressing diverse groups through a completely non-exclusive approach.”
The same is also true for socially-driven companies who form part of our general accelerator program in the region. From 2020 to 2021, the majority responded to the migration crisis by leveraging their expertise in social inclusion and employment to provide support for people forced to leave their homes in Ukraine and settle in Poland and Romania. Very quickly, our acceleration portfolio began providing quality jobs, wrap-around services, and other forms of employment support for refugees.
NESsT Case Study: Studio M6 Foundation
Photo: Studio M6 Foundation, NESsT portfolio enterprise
NESsT portfolio enterprise Studio M6 joined the NESsT – IKEA Social Entrepreneurship Poland & Romania Accelerator Program in 2021. The social business based in Toruń, Poland, generates quality jobs for its local community through several business lines, including a social café. Here, the social enterprise provides quality job opportunities and training to people grappling with long-term unemployment, including people with disabilities, women, youth, and refugees and migrants, equipping them with the skills and confidence to develop long-term careers. As part of the NESsT – IKEA Social Entrepreneurship Poland & Romania Accelerator Program, the enterprise was able to support more than 100 people from marginalized groups across all its business lines and initiatives with trainings, placements and direct employment.
5. Social enterprises are designed to tackle intersectional issues through holistic approaches
Building on the previous point, enterprises that tackle intersectional challenges often succeed by combining environmental sustainability with social impact. Models that contribute to the circular economy or produce sustainable products while creating job opportunities for underserved communities are prime examples of this approach.
“Our methodology supports businesses with these dual-impact models through funding, mentorship, and market access. In this way, by encouraging innovation in product and service design that tackles both social and environmental challenges we can accelerate progress toward systemic change.”
An example is the previously mentioned portfolio enterprise ALTRNTV, a conscious fashion boutique that is contributing to the circular economy in Romania while supporting over 150 Romanian artisans from both rural and urban communities, 90% of whom are women.
Additionally, Ekoinbud, a socially impactful enterprise dedicated to reducing the environmental impact of the construction sector, aims to create 180 dignified employment opportunities in design, manufacturing, and on-site construction to youth, refugees, and women. The enterprise joined the NESsT portfolio in 2024 and will continue to receive tailored support through the new program iteration launched in 2025.
6. Facilitating meaningful connections among social enterprises
Our acceleration work in Poland and Romania has shown that facilitating connections between social enterprises can lead to organic collaboration and sustained relationships that drive deeper, longer-term impact.
“Within the portfolio, Polish social enterprise Heca visited Romanian enterprise Atelierul de Panza, gaining insight into their scaled-up business model providing people with disabilities with training and quality employment. Additionally, after connecting several of our Romanian enterprises, including Atelierul de Panza, ALTRNTV, and Helyenvalo, they went on to deepen their collaboration independently, cross selling and promoting each other’s services. These enterprises were able to leverage each other’s strengths, learn from shared experiences, and develop innovative joint initiatives that amplify their impact.”
The accelerator’s in-person meetings played a key role in fostering this deeper engagement and meaningful exchanges—and were something our enterprises truly valued:
7. Addressing systemic challenges like migration requires comprehensive strategies
“Tackling systemic issues, such as migration, requires coordinated approaches that account for the multifaceted economic, social, and governance implications. An intersectional lens provides critical insights into compounded disadvantages and opportunities. At NESsT, we’ve found that enterprises based on multi-stakeholder coalitions succeed at driving impactful and sustainable change by addressing root causes and interconnected challenges.”
NESsT Case Study: Jobful
In March 2022, Jobful, in partnership with the local foundation ‘Project Voyager’, launched jobs4ukr.com – the region’s largest employment platform for people affected by the war in Ukraine. Since its inception, over 15,000 refugees have registered with the database to access verified job opportunities in Europe and abroad, and in globally remote positions.
Photo: Jobful, NESsT portfolio enterprise
The platform also features an online resource center with government support guides, details of free Romanian and English language courses supported by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), and job matching and counseling services tailored specifically to the needs of displaced Ukrainians in collaboration with the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR).
When Jobful joined the NESsT Refugee Employment Initiative in 2023, NESsT portfolio managers connected the enterprise with other companies in the portfolio seeking to hire people facing migration and seeking to settle in Poland and Romania. One of these enterprises was an eco-friendly packaging manufacturer Box Elyte, which provides dignified jobs to marginalized groups at its production plant in Romania. To reach Ukrainian jobseekers arriving in Romania, Box Elyte publishes its job opportunities on the jobs4ukr.com platform, and supported over 36 refugees and migrants with quality jobs in 2024.
About the NESsT Central-Eastern Europe (CEE) Accelerator Program
The NESsT Central-Eastern Europe (CEE) Accelerator Program, with a focus on Poland and Romania, is dedicated to supporting enterprises that create dignified jobs for under-represented communities. These include individuals who face migration or displacement, small producers and artisans, youth, ethnic minorities, the LGBTQIA+ community, people with disabilities, women, small-scale farmers, informal workers, and those experiencing homelessness.
Supported by IKEA Social Entrepreneurship and Cisco Foundation, this program builds on the significant impact of the NESsT Refugee Employment Initiative, which has been instrumental in providing close to 3,000 individuals facing displacement and migration in Poland and Romania with long-term job support from 2021–2024. It also integrates valuable insights from three years of the NESsT-IKEA Social Entrepreneurship Accelerator in Poland and Romania which concluded in 2024.
The program aims to strengthen enterprises that foster inclusive economic opportunities for excluded groups and is actively seeking new collaborators to amplify its impact. Donors interested in contributing to this mission can contact NESsT directly to explore partnership opportunities. Socially impactful enterprises in Poland and Romania interested in joining the program are encouraged to visit NESsT’s website for more information and application details.