Firm news | July 27, 2023
Reach for Change helps social entrepreneurs thrive
Our long-time pro bono partner Reach for Change is a global non-profit organization working to unleash the power of social entrepreneurs to create a better world for children and youth. So far, they have successfully supported 1,500 social entrepreneurs in reaching over 4.7 million children and youth worldwide. Roschier has worked with Reach for Change on a pro bono-basis in Sweden since 2010, helping them scale up their operations.
Reach for Change provides tailored capacity development opportunities for local social entrepreneurs and support the advancement of proven solutions within three thematic areas: poverty, inequality, and climate change.
“Having a partner like Roschier is like winning the lottery because every question we direct their way is critical to the success of these organizations and entrepreneurs, our organization and the children and youth that rely on their services and every request gets treated with not only professionalism but compassion,” Country Manager Sweden Andréa Råsberg says.
“We started in Sweden, and Roschier helped us to quickly scale up from 2 to 18 countries in about 4 years. The knowledge and support we received was vital to navigating so many different partners, countries, and structures.”
The process of collaboration with Roschier is very smooth and efficient, everyone we work with wants us to succeed
Reach for Change is aiming high, wanting to multiply their impact ten-fold by 2030 and reach a total of 30 million children and youth through our programs.
“To achieve this, we need to invest in solutions with life-changing potential and support the scaling of more social innovations. We also need to invest in a more diverse range of social entrepreneurs and ramp up our ecosystem development work to ensure key players work together in harmony to support grassroots-led change,” Andréa explains.
Reach for Change + Roschier
“Roschier was one of our very first partners and has been a vital part of Reach for Change since 2010. They have been critical for us as an organization in navigating our way to best support local social ventures as well as supporting those smaller start up organizations in Sweden in navigating their way to improving the lives of children and young people that they work with,” says Andréa Råsberg and continues:
“They offer very valuable support to our entrepreneurs in areas where we are not able to provide help. This is done through their individual interaction with the entrepreneurs after the entrepreneurs have had their requests approved, as well as through Legal Advising Day. For the Reach for Change organization, they have been able to support us when it comes to employment, contracts, organizational structure, scaling to new countries and so much more.”
The lawyers’ perspective
Vicky Kaufmann, a Senior Associate at Roschier, works pro bono with Reach for Change, and she finds it both meaningful and rewarding.
“When I joined Roschier, I found that it is a law firm that truly believes in contributing and giving back to the society. Through Roschier’s pro bono assignments, I realized that I could provide high quality legal services while having a meaningful impact on organizations that work with all types of social matters.”
With Reach for Change, Roschier’s lawyers get to work with big impact entities as well as grassroot organizations. Reach for Change has, through their social entrepreneurs, established a network whereby change leaders are provided the tools that are necessary to create lasting and real change.
“It is a truly inspirational organization to work with – both in relation to the amazing people that work there and are part of their incubator program as well as in the way it allows us to be a part of changing society where it is needed the most.”
The advice that Roschier provides for Reach for Change and the social entrepreneurs does not differ much from the advice we give to our other clients.
“The questions can of course differ because of a difference in the characteristics between our pro bono clients and our other clients and differences in the types of projects that are being undertaken but at its core, it is the same need for business law advice when it really matters to the client,” Vicky Kaufmann concludes.
Supporting non-profit organizations with legal advice pro bono has long been a part of Roschier’s culture and part of our commitment to give back to society. We are proud to work with many organizations and entities that would otherwise have fewer opportunities to obtain the legal advice they need, to make an impact on, e.g., diversity, inclusion and equality, the environment, young entrepreneurship, as well as research and medical treatment.
Reach for Change in a nutshell:
- Founded 2010 in Sweden.
- Offers tried-and-tested capacity development programs that support social entrepreneurs through a combination of training, coaching, peer learning, network connections, and in some cases seed funding.
- Works to improve local ecosystems for social entrepreneurship and build strong pipelines of social innovation across several countries in Europe and Africa, with the long-term objective that the supported social entrepreneurs deliver effective and sustainable solutions at significant scale for children and youth.
- Engages in thought leadership, cross-sectoral collaboration, and evidence generation to contribute towards sustainable supportive ecosystems for social entrepreneurs in their local contexts.
- Offers programs run by local teams based in six countries: Sweden, Latvia, Bulgaria, Ghana, Senegal, and Ethiopia and maintains ecosystem networks and portfolios of program alumni in eleven additional countries across Europe and Africa.