🎬 Multilingual subtitles
✍️ By: Team BC1.NL
MAEX puts community initiatives on the map
In 2013, Gerda Deekens and Silvia Oostwegel launched MAEX, a Dutch platform for creating and measuring impact. Their goal is to give greater visibility to the many community initiatives out there, from city gardens to food banks. Over time, it became clear that there was also a need to show just how much value these initiatives create.
The social handprint captures that value down to the euro
That's why the Social Handprint is being developed in partnership with a range of organisations, including Ernst & Young and students from TU Delft. The Social Handprint is built on the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals and draws on indicators that apply at a national level, allowing it to express the value of an initiative precisely, right down to the euro. And since society is always evolving, it's designed as a learning system that keeps developing over time. In this kitchen-table conversation, Gerda explains who can create a profile on MAEX and build a social handprint.
Anyone with a social handprint can apply for a boost
Working together with the VSB Fund, MAEX offers support to community initiatives and social enterprises that need it. Organisations with a social handprint on MAEX can apply for financial boosts, such as a grant.
More than 400 initiatives now have a social handprint
It's clear that there's real demand for a platform like MAEX. The Covid crisis has thrown the importance of community initiatives into sharp relief, and thanks to the social handprint, these initiatives can stay focused on their real purpose while also demonstrating their worth. That they recognise this value themselves is evident from the number that have already created a social handprint on MAEX, more than 400 in total.
See also:
At the kitchen table in conversation with Willem Lageweg Transition Coalition Food
At the Kitchen Table, in conversation with Sandra Pellegrom Sustainable Development Goals
