About the platform

The web platform is designed as a tool for raising funds in the form of crowdfunding for concepts for establishing new social enterprises in North Macedonia. Furthermore, the platform is also meant to serve as a resource for both established and emerging social entrepreneurship initiatives. The platform additionally provides networking opportunities, updates, knowledge sharing, and support information. Initiative creators will have the opportunity to promote their initiatives and raise funds through a crowdfunding campaign in the fundraising section.

About the project

 The “Social Entrepreneurship for Youth Employment” project will strive to provide capacity building opportunities for unemployed young people, while also assisting them in a process of self-development and growth in the field of social entrepreneurship as a contemporary form of self-employment. The project will establish a favorable environment that encourages youth social entrepreneurship, which in turn would decrease youth unemployment. It will also strenghten vulnerable youth’s competences and capacities, support youth-led social entrepreneurship, involve young people in social enterprises, and provide them a space to raise funds for the implementation of innovative social enterprise ideas.

The project seeks to increase the skills of unemployed youth from vulnerable categories while influencing their economic power, as well as to increase their interest in social entrepreneurship by creating various opportunities in this area, greater online and offline logistical and technical support for social enterprises that will contribute to increased social and economic development of enterprises and their employees, increased alternative methods of financing social enterprises that would result in an increased number of social enterprises, increased number of national strategic documents that foresee measures and activities for young social entrepreneurs.

General target groups:

The project’s general target groups consist of young people and existing social enterprises looking to improve their services.

Specific target audiences:

• Young Roma;
• Youth without parental care;
• Youth with disabilities;
• Young girls;
• Young people – former drug addicts.

The primary goal is to encourage economic empowerment and the growth of youth-led social enterprises.

For the purposes of this call for financial support, a social enterprise is defined as “a social enterprise is defined as an operator in the social economy whose main goal is to have a social impact by providing goods and services on the market in an innovative and entrepreneurial way, using its profit primarily to achieve social goals, and it is managed in a participatory manner with the involvement of employees, consumers, and interested parties who are affected by Its activities […] The term called social purpose is considered in a broader sense and includes the provision of cultural, health and educational services, as well as environmental protection services. By promoting the general interest, SPs overcome the traditional orientation towards owners and shareholders. In the case of a product, SPs must provide a product/service that carries social value.” For the purposes of this project, a youth social enterprise is defined as a social enterprise that: a) possesses management structure composed of at least two thirds of young people between the ages of 15 and 29; b) employs or engages young people between the ages of 15 and 29; or c) social enterprise that directly impacts and creates benefits for young people between the ages of 15 and 29.

 About NYCМ

The National Youth Council of Macedonia is a voluntary union of associations comprised of associations and foundations from the Republic of North Macedonia. NYCM was founded on June 29, 2013, and its network includes 51 organizations from various backgrounds: 16 youth organizations, 20 organizations for young people, 1 union, 7 youth affiliates of other organizations, and 7 affiliated organizations.

The National Youth Council of Macedonia works at the local level in all planning regions through its regional branch offices, and it works at the national and international levels with all of the NYCM’s members and bodies. The creation and encouragement of processes, activities, and programs for building the capacities of youth forms of organization are the main areas in which the council has built a long-term portfolio; creation of processes, activities, and programs aimed at young people’s personal and professional development; representation and cooperation with all relevant stakeholders with the goal of improving the capacities and opportunities for youth forms of organizing and promoting young people’s well-being, encouraging and leading processes for creating youth policies; promotion and monitoring of existing youth policies; representation and collaboration with/before all relevant stakeholders (national, regional, and international) for the purpose of young people’s position (policies for youth participation, youth standards, quality of life). NYCM directly influences youth’s well-being, enables young people’s social and economic growth, encourages active citizenship and youth activism, establishes networks between young people, the business sector, donors, institutions, and other stakeholders, and advocates for following trends in the field of young people through these areas.

The National Youth Council of Macedonia has been an active member of the European family of youth organizations, i.e. the European Youth Forum since November 29, 2015.

The NYCM currently has two programs running: a good governance programme and a strategic development programme.