July 2025

Train-the-Trainer: Establishing European standards for social start-up consulting



The European Social Innovation Alliance (ESIA) is developing a Europe-wide training programme for advisors who support social start-ups. The project began in June 2025 with a kick-off event in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. It is led by Norbert Kunz, Managing Director of Social Impact gGmbH. In this interview, Mr Kunz explains why this project is important and how it will be implemented.



Mr Kunz, why is ESIA developing a Europe-wide training programme for social start-up advisors?

Kunz: This project is highly relevant for several reasons. Europe is currently facing serious social challenges – including poverty, inequality, migration, skill shortages, and demographic change. We need new answers to these issues. Social start-ups can offer innovative, local, and impact-oriented approaches. However, they lack the proper support needed to succeed and grow. In particular, there is a clear shortage of qualified advisors for social start-ups across almost all European countries. This is why we urgently need systematically trained consultants. A common Europe-wide curriculum, like the one we are developing, can help create quality standards for this type of consulting.



But aren’t conditions across Europe too different for this kind of project?

Kunz: Yes, the national systems in the social economy do vary a lot, and that makes knowledge transfer more difficult. However, our project is designed to set clear benchmarks, gather best practices, and contribute to more professional support structures for social start-ups across Europe. This can help increase both their number and their impact. The EU is already encouraging social innovation through programmes such as the European Social Fund Plus, the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund, and the EU Action Plan for the Social Economy. These all stress the importance of social enterprises. But for them to be successful, a well-qualified consulting environment is essential.



Can you describe the current situation in Germany and other EU countries?

Kunz: In Germany, the support landscape is very fragmented. There are some programmes run by organisations like Social Impact, SEND e.V., Ashoka and the Social Entrepreneurship Academy. But overall, there are hardly any systematic, standardised train-the-trainer programmes focused specifically on social start-ups. As a result, consulting quality often depends on individual experience. Also, conventional start-up consultants usually have little knowledge about social entrepreneurship. A Europe-wide curriculum could help bridge the gap between conventional business consulting and the specific needs of social start-ups.

In Germany, this is especially important for structurally weak regions like Eastern Germany. Here, locally trained advisors could play a key role in driving social innovation for regional development. We are already offering such training in the state of Brandenburg.

If we look at countries like Italy, France and Spain, we see that they have a long tradition of social enterprises, often in the form of cooperatives. While some train-the-trainer programmes do exist, they are often not connected to the newer, impact-focused forms of social start-ups. There is also little consistency or comparability across Europe. The same is true for the other ESIA partner countries. Then again in Eastern Europe, for example in Poland or Romania, social innovation and social entrepreneurship are still at an early stage. Support structures are being built, and consulting is often not yet professional. Our international train-the-trainer model can help transfer knowledge and build long-term capacity in these regions.



What special skills do consultants need for social start-ups, and why is conventional start-up consulting not enough?

Kunz: Consulting for social start-ups requires specific expertise that goes far beyond what is usually needed for conventional start-ups. Conventional consulting focuses mostly on business-related aspects like market research, scaling, financing, and competition. But social start-ups have a dual purpose: they aim for both entrepreneurial success and social impact. This creates a different set of demands for advisors.

A deep understanding of social impact goals is crucial. Consultants must be able to work with founders to analyse social problems, identify target group needs, and develop business models that are focused on impact. This means they need to understand concepts like theory of change, impact logic, and how to measure impact — tools that are rarely used in conventional consulting.

Consultants also need to understand how to balance social goals with financial viability. Social start-ups often operate in regulated markets and depend on specific types of funding, while still needing to be financially sustainable. So traditional tools like business plans and financing models must be expanded with new approaches such as the Social Business Canvas, hybrid financing methods, and social investment options like social impact bonds, impact funds, or community-based crowdfunding.

In addition, consultants must be familiar with legal structures and funding options that are relevant to social start-ups, such as non-profit legal forms like the gGmbH in Germany, cooperatives and foundations. They also need to understand national and European funding schemes for social innovation, which are essential for many social start-ups but not usually covered in conventional start-up consulting.

Another important requirement is strong communication and educational skills. Social start-up founders come from diverse backgrounds such as social work, education, refugee support or voluntary work. Advisors need to support them as equals and in a way that values their resources and experience. Often, consulting in this field also includes aspects of empowerment and community-building, not just business development.

It’s also important for social start-up advisors to understand complex stakeholder environments. Social start-ups often work at the intersection of civil society, public institutions and business. Consultants need to help founders work across these sectors, encourage partnerships, and manage different expectations.

And finally, many social start-ups today are created in digital, hybrid or decentralised environments. This adds new challenges for advisors. When it comes to digitalisation and AI, social start-ups have a double responsibility — to innovate while also promoting the common good. So they should treat AI not just as a technical tool, but as a social instrument that prioritises fairness, impact and human values over pure efficiency.

In short, conventional consulting is often not enough for social start-ups, because it focuses only on economic success. What’s needed here is an interdisciplinary, impact-driven, empathetic, and systemic approach — and that’s exactly what we want to include in our curriculum.



How are you developing the training concept?

Kunz: We’re using a co-creation approach with our ESIA partners — the Good Deed Foundation from Estonia, Social Enterprise Netherlands, and the Social Business Incubator from the Ministry of Labour, Employment and the Social and Solidarity Economy in Luxembourg. At the moment, we’re carrying out a joint needs analysis. We are comparing existing trainings, legal frameworks, target groups and institutional funding systems. We don’t see the differences between our countries as a problem — we see them as an opportunity, a resource.

Based on this analysis, we will develop a modular training concept. It will include core modules that can be used across Europe — for example on impact measurement, business model development and social finance — as well as country-specific elements, especially related to legal and funding systems.



Will there be practical testing?

Kunz: Yes, we will test the curriculum through a series of pilot training courses and phases, both online and in person. There will also be a trainer’s manual, with practical advice, method recommendations and tips for adapting the training to national contexts where needed. This will help ensure that participants of the trainings can offer professional support to social start-ups, both in their own country and at the European level.

It’s also important to mention that our training won’t stop at the founding phase. We also want to support social start-ups in scaling their impact, replicating successful models, and connecting to European networks.

Another goal is to build a ‘community of practice’ — a group of trained consultants who work across borders, share knowledge, and help strengthen the social start-up field in Europe together.

We aim to have the full programme ready by early 2027. All training materials will be made publicly available. Of course, we will begin by focusing on the four ESIA countries — and there’s great potential for scaling and replication in neighbouring countries like Germany, the Netherlands and Luxembourg — but we are already thinking on a wider scale.



What long-term impact do you hope to achieve?

Kunz: As said: Our goal is to help professionalise social start-up consulting in Europe by creating common standards and a shared understanding of social entrepreneurship. We also want to build a European network of specialised consultants. They will gain new skills, become part of a collaborative network, and help raise the quality and visibility of this work — including among political and institutional actors.

More broadly, we want to show that social start-ups need more than isolated funding projects. They need a long-term, systemic support structure. In the end, we hope this project contributes to stronger integration of social entrepreneurship into European funding programmes and economic policy.