Funding Futures: Kick-starting young social entrepreneur’s ideas

“Whatever Social by Design becomes, I’ll still remember the mark this funding has left on us”

Alaa Alsewid, Founder, Social by Design 

At the start of 2024, we awarded £8k to Alaa Alsewid, 29, through our Funding Futures Programme. This helped kick-start her idea for a social enterprise that would use lived experience, local knowledge, and cultural understanding to deliver training to communities that need it most.  

The Funding Futures Programme is a joint fund from UnLtd and Co-op Foundation, created to support young social entrepreneurs working in the areas of financial inclusion and literacy. 

Before starting her social enterprise, Alaa was a consultant offering services to international NGOs. It was here she realised that important elements were left out of training – things like considering local experience, co-design, and cultural sensitivities.  

“During my career I found that local experience was left out,” Alaa says. “When working in countries like Syria, Egypt, Turkey, I found that there was a training expert that didn’t know a lot about the current situation of the country or the people they were working with. They would have the expertise, yes, but they didn’t know the context, the environment, what the culture is, and the sensitivities.”.  

In 2024, aged 29, Alaa created Social by Design to address these issues. The grant from the Funding Futures Programme supported Alaa to put her expertise and learning into action, and prove that her idea would work, through a pilot training course.  

“We needed to pilot something that represented what we do, so we decided to pilot a digital literacy project,” Alaa explains. “We wanted to show an example of how we include lived experience in the work that we do, but we also needed to choose something that no one else was working on.” 

They brainstormed and co-designed the course with refugees and came up with a Digital Literacy course, inspired by the many stories of refugees and vulnerable communities that were victims of fraud and scammers online.  

Much more than a pilot

The Funding Futures Programme grant was the first funding Alaa had received for Social by Design and it gave them the push they needed. Alaa said:

“This funding was super important for us because it gave us our first push. It was a relief when we got the funding. It was actually the first funding we received, so it told us that someone believed in us. On a practical scale it allowed us to do the pilot. And without the pilot we wouldn’t be able to promote the work we’re doing.” 

The pilot was produced in both English and Arabic to accommodate the people who would be taking part. It helped Alaa to build a business model for the future and demonstrated the kind of training Social by Design provided and was capable of.  

But the pilot became so much more than that; Alaa saw it have a huge impact in areas she wasn’t even expecting. She said:  

“Sometimes you do something to make an impact – and by coincidence you end up having an impact somewhere else that you didn’t expect. And this is what happened for us.”  

“Because we worked with people who were Arabic-speaking and it was targeted to them specifically, we found out that those people who suffer from language barriers are mostly isolated. They don’t engage in events and community activities because language is a big barrier for them. We found that bringing them all together brought a lot of joy and happiness and a sense of belonging. For the first time they could interact and meet people that speak their own language, and they didn’t feel as isolated or left behind.”  

“We had one woman by the end of the training who said to us that this was the first time she’d felt happy in five years outside of her home. There was a social, cultural aspect that came alongside the digital literacy. A lot of people formed new friendships and they’re now still in contact.”

“I feel super happy because, before that, this woman’s life was all around staying at home, taking care of her children. Now she has a social life, she can interact with people she’s comfortable with – it’s one of the amazing things that we found [from the digital literacy pilot].” 

Alaa is continuing to run the pilot and is looking to expand it into four more languages. She said:

“Since we’ve had this pilot project, we’re able to go to organisations and offer it out as training – and customise it to their needs. It’s the first way we’ve been able to generate business.”   

Additional support from UnLtd  

Alongside the funding, Alaa benefitted from one-to-one support. A Support Manager from UnLtd provides expert guidance and advice, as well as offering training to build skills such as safeguarding and exploring ways to generate revenue to support longer-term financial resilience – which came in handy for Alaa’s pilot project.  Alaa said:

“When starting a business you start from nothing. You have to educate yourself and then UnLtd help you fill the gaps.  

“The flexibility of how we spend the funding, how we report back was really helpful. I always hated invoices and they make it really easy for you. They give you the resources that can make the process really easy and smooth.” 

Taking steps to the future  

The Funding Futures Programme puts the power in the hands of young social entrepreneurs. In this case, it kick-started Social by Design and paved the way for the future.  

Alaa said: “Whatever Social by Design becomes, I’ll still remember the mark this funding has left on us. Because it was our first funding, it was the thing that made us believe we could do something. Seeing that someone is believing in you without having the proof, is a big thing.  

“Now we’ve had two more grants from different funders, but I feel like the funding from The Funding Futures Programme played a huge role because people now trust us. It allowed us to start and allowed us to take actual steps towards what we want to achieve.”    

You can find out more about the Funding Futures Programme, including how to apply here.

We’re Co-op’s charity and we’re building communities that are fairer for everyone.  By supporting organisations like Alaa’s, we’re doing right by Co-op members by making their support go further. Learn more about our impact.

To find out more about Social by Design, or to apply for a grant go to https://wearesocialbydesign.com/