What We Do

Stimulate

Problem Briefs

In line with its focus on Pakistan’s critical developmental challenges, Impact Network has prepared five problem briefs, one each on Education, Health, Agriculture, Water and Energy sectors. These two-pager briefs give an overview of the problems in each sector, share some key statistics and cite examples of potential solutions from around the world. This information is frequently shared with partners and other stakeholders in order to steer innovation to solve these problems.

Orientation Sessions:

Impact Network recognizes the potential of youth as future leaders. To harness this potential, we deliver sessions on Social Innovation at our various partner universities across Pakistan. At these workshops, students are educated about the concept of social innovation, its need in today’s world and their own potential to be social innovators.

Policy Stimulation

External policy environment is critical in nurturing an ecosystem as nascent as ours. Impact Network engages with government officials and senior stakeholders of Pakistan’s startup ecosystem to stimulate discourse on the existing gaps in planning, legislature, and funding supply chain for the startup community.

Support

Information Sharing

We believe in collating information that can inform our partner organizations and other stakeholders of the startup ecosystem. For this purpose, Impact Network is constantly building and updating its database of social innovators, mentors, funding organizations, relevant government departments and donor programs in all five of our priority sectors. We also maintain a master calendar of national and global startup competitions to be held all year round for entrepreneurs from Pakistan.

Capacity Building Workshops for

(a) Entrepreneurs
Impact Network holds a number of training workshops for entrepreneurs on critical topics like:

– Financial & Impact Projections
– Preparing Case Studies and Getting Visibility
– Business Models for BOP
– Building Partnership Frameworks
– Human Centered Design Thinking
– Impact Measurement
– SROI (Social Return on Investment)
– Understanding Donor Funding Requirements

(b) Incubators & Accelerators
Capacity building of incubators and accelerators is an important agenda for Impact Network. We hold trainings on best incubation practices in all major cities of Pakistan. These workshops are designed to not only enhance the skills of the incubator staff but also to increase engagement and collaboration amongst the incubators and accelerators.

Sector Meetups

To foster collaboration between organizations working in the same sector, Impact Network organizes Sector Meetups in each of its five priority areas, that are, Education, Health, Agriculture, Water and Energy. These Sector Meetups provide an opportunity for the entrepreneurs, donors, government departments working in the same sector to come together, map their mutual objectives and explore areas of collaboration to scale their impact.

Scale

Scale Up Program

Impact Network Scale Up Program is a post-acceleration training program for mid-stage startups to ensure that high potential social enterprises reach scale and succeed in creating tangible social impact. We attempt to do that by the sharing of our intellectual, monetary, and other resources. We work very closely with the people involved in this program, and help them with Needs Assessment, Organizational Capacity Assessment, Strategy Building, Partnership Development Framework, Development of Financial Plan, and lastly, final Scale Up Plan and monthly milestone setting.

For Scale Up Program 2018, Impact Network has taken up 7 social startups who are tackling critical national issues through innovation and entrepreneurship. The cohort includes Byonyks, Sehat Kahani, Sheops, Goats for Water, Catco Kids, Mauqa Online, and Rise Moms.

Impact Investment Summit

Impact Network holds an annual Impact Investment Summit to showcase high potential social innovations to a panel of national and international impact investors in order to raise funding for the social innovations.