International Grant Support for Social Entrepreneurship in Ukraine

The aggravation of social problems in Ukraine has provoked the development of social entrepreneurship, which makes it urgent to find sources of financial support for socially oriented entrepreneurial initiatives. In conditions of limited own resources and reduced State support, an important source of capital is international grant aid. The theoretical basis for the study of sources and mechanisms of grant support for social entrepreneurship was the identification of this process essence, its criteria and development trends in the world and Ukraine. In Ukraine, the identification of the essence and mechanisms of social entrepreneurship does not coincide with the classical understanding of this socioeconomic phenomenon and is boiled down to entrepreneurial activity aimed at meeting the needs of socially vulnerable population groups, solving social problems, ignoring the innovative component. The results of the SWOT analysis of the factors of social entrepreneurship development in Ukraine prove that, without prejudice to the advantages and social significance of social entrepreneurship, the main problem of its development is the lack of financial resources. In Ukraine, the main sources of financing for social entrepreneurship are own funds, loans from financial and credit institutions, domestic grants and projects, foreign investments, State and local budgets. It is found that an effective form of non-repayable support for social entrepreneurship is assistance from international funds in the form of grants or soft loans. One of the most widely used instruments for financial support of social entrepreneurship initiatives is crowdfunding through online platforms (HOUSEOFEUROPE, GRANTY, GURT, SILab Ukraine, etc.). Most of such platforms are international due to cooperation with international projects and provide grants that are not limited to social target orientation.