ABOUT US





WE HELP DIFFERENTLY.



WHAT WE DO.




Action10 was started in 2009 by Dr Cecilia Öman, with the purpose of providing start and scale-up loans and coaching to social entrepreneurs in under-served communities in Sub-Saharan Africa.



WE ARE A VOLUNTEER DRIVEN ORGANISATION.





Action10 is an entirely volunteer-driven organisation registered in Sweden. It means that 97% of donations reach our beneficiaries, while only 3% is used for administration in Sweden, for bank and website fees.

From 2009, when Action10 was a "one-man-band," until today, it grew to an organisation managed by 20 volunteers.



HOW WE HELP.





Action10 operates under the umbrella of Human Rights and Science (HR&S).

In 2015, Cecilia registered a social enterprise Human Rights and Science (HR&S) to strengthen the operations of Action10. HR&S has local offices in six countries and offers local coaching on evaluation planning, survey management, branding & PR, and accounting, as well as professional auditing.

OUR TARGET PARTNERS

We encourage people to talk to us about their ideas. We seek to partner with social entrepreneurs who have a passion for driving change by starting a business.

ACTION10 VOLUNTEERS IN SWEDEN

A group of volunteers in Sweden works together for Action10 to closely support the local stakeholders in Sub-Saharan African countries. They are organised in different working groups reflecting our values. They support Action10 hard-working and ambitious social entrepreneurs, giving their best to meet their needs.



START & SCALE-UP BUSINESS LOANS:
HOW THEY WORK.





Action10 offers investment capital to facilitate social enterprising start and scale-up.



This is how our loans work:



- The loans are always combined with local coaching and annual external auditing of the programme benefiting from the loan.

- The loan is given with 10% annual interest, and the interest is used to co-fund the programme coaching and auditing. The coaches and auditors are reimbursed a minimum annual amount of Euro 300.

- The loans are given out as "soft loans". The HR&S definition of soft-loans is that legal actions will not be taken, even if mistakes are made. Mistakes are followed-up on through the local coaches, auditor and community alliances benefiting from discussions, awareness rising, reflections and negotiations.

- HR&S offers loans even if the loan-taker is not in a position to guarantee the loan by a value-securing object or capital. The purpose is obviously to reach also under-served social entrepreneurs. The risk with entering a financial partnership without formal guarantees is addressed through cooperative responsibility structures, branding and public relations with the targeted community, and an accountability management package designed by HR&S.

- A potential loan-taker becomes eligible for a loan by attending a series of mini-courses that ends with an exam. Those who pass the exam are welcome to bring their business models to a series of workshops. The trainee pays €10 for the mini-course and the workshop. After the workshop, potential loan-takers may be invited to discuss a loan-taker and a coaching agreement.

- Each project starts small and scales firmly. The first loan is usually around €1,000, and a second twice the amount. Usually, the total loan for each project is €15,000.

- Any income exceeding the cost of paying back the loan and the interest is kept by the social entrepreneur to primarily cover the business running costs and be appreciated as profit.



The purpose of giving loans and not donations is double: to enable social good combined with a sustainable economy, and to be able to empower a larger number of social entrepreneurs, as the capital can be used over and over again.

The paid back capital is kept on the HR&S local bank account and is re-invested in order to scale-up the on-going partner business or to start or scale up a new business. The capital is raised through donations due to the inherent financial risk.



OUR SPONSORS AND PARTNERS



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BANKGIRO: 431-4381

IBAN: SE85 8000 0832 7991 3564 3105
BIC: SWEDSESS

SWISH: 123 496 8020






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If monetary donations are not your cup of tea, there are many ways to take action.





info@action10.org