10 years to enter into a new world
At the very beginning of the adventure, a world tour, bikes, a camera, Facebook groups. The pitch fits on a post-it: makesense will create visibility for socially-conscious, community innovations from North to South, connecting citizens and entrepreneurs to help them solve their challenges and create a global community around those issues. This is 2010, and we are certain of one thing: social entrepreneurship can save the world. We are young, the idea is new, joyful; the planet is still below +2°C.
For the first 10 years, our activities have revolved around two central points: social entrepreneurship and community, both developed according to our own tools built with our collective intelligence, collaboration, and joy. Citizens have come to the aid of entrepreneurs; we have invented paths of support for professionals; we have developed incubators; we have set up an investment fund; we have connected large groups to social entrepreneurs and NGOs… if we look at the figures, they’re nothing to sneeze at. In 10 years, we have enabled 200,000 citizens to take concrete action on the issues that affect them, accelerated the projects of 8,000 entrepreneurs and impact startups, and helped 10,000 employees of companies and organizations to become more involved.
But has the system been changed for all that? Our initial utopia raises a number of questions.
- The scattered civic engagement of millions of people is not enough to change a society stuck in the race for economic performance.
How can we unite forces, change modes of action and mobilize to achieve a real tipping point? - Social entrepreneurship does not act on a level playing field with the major economic players. In some countries, the status of social entrepreneur does not even exist.
How can we equip ourselves to finally play in the big leagues? - Social innovation sometimes suggests that there is a solution to everything and that “progress” can save everything.
How can we move towards making do with less and learn to adapt to the crises that lie ahead?
Here we are in 2020. The climate is getting out of control, inequalities are deepening, natural resources are being depleted, crises are coming one after the other, and Covid-19 is spreading. The next 10 years will be crucial to profoundly transforming our models of production, work, consumption and living as a society.
Time is running out, but we’re not discouraged. We are tireless optimists working for an inclusive and sustainable world and, without naivety, we believe it is within our reach. To create this world, we plan to devote our next 10 years to…
(re)empowering
We have always had a deeply held conviction that every person is capable and worthy—if given the time to learn—of making informed decisions for the common good.
Thanks to our citizen mobilization efforts we will inspire, equip and train hundreds of thousands of people each year to take action, until we have mobilized 10% of young people in 2030.
Building resilience
Reliance on large, centralized structures makes us vulnerable to systemic shocks. Conversely, building horizontal interdependencies between all players not only allows us to cope with crises, but also to find more sustainable and appropriate solutions.
Over the next 10 years within the makesense campus we will train thousands of professionals using our tools and know-how of communities and support for solution-providers.
Mobilizing on a massive scale
If individual actions prove insufficient, when they are reproduced in very large numbers and considered collectively they can make society pivot in a new direction.
Our efforts will be 10 times stronger thanks to thematic coalitions comprised of a maximum number of partners: NGOs, public actors, private companies, and entrepreneurs.
We will encourage each person involved to mobilize 10 people, who in turn will mobilize 10 people.
Cultivating the imagination
This seems essential to us: in order not to remain stuck in the present, to get out of the stupor and get moving, to create other possibilities, we need to cultivate imagination and joy.
We are going to maintain and strengthen our positive and playful approach, and with the support of artists, writers, thinkers, we will write new tales for the future…
We will live and experience the transition within our own organization for 10 years, showing that it makes us happy and free.
Today, we have 10 years left to prepare the world to change. We’re ready!