Over 700 social entrepreneurs who are changing Romania can be found on the Map of Social Innovators made by Ashoka Romania

At five years since the launch of the first Map of Social Innovators, Ashoka launched a new research dedicated to local social entrepreneurship, where there are over 700 people who are changing Romania for the better.

In recent months, Ashoka Romania, together with IZI data, documented the 2022 edition of the Map of Social Innovators in Romania, and it includes the names of more than 700 people who generate change in our country. The research also resulted in the list of social innovators and their supporters, which brings together more than 25 of the most well-known names in social entrepreneurship.

Among them are Diana Certan (Concordia Humanitarian Organization), Raluca Negulescu-Balaci (UiPath Foundation), Luca Ciubotaru (Rădăuțiul Civic), Dorica Dan (Prader Willi Association), Angela Achiței (Alături de Voi Foundation Romania), Vlad Dumitrescu (FDSC), Mihai Lupu (Educab) and Elena Calistru (Funky Citizens).

“The Map of Social Innovators in Romania is a tool that everyone should have at hand when we talk about the civil sector or the people who make Romania good. The current mapping demonstrates once again how well connected we are to all the initiatives in the country, and how the good is reflected especially in key areas of development, such as education or social inclusion, where we still have a lot to recover”, said Ana Murray, country director Ashoka Romania.

The network of social innovators in 2022 is composed of 779 people (nodes) and 1013 connections between them, which means an average of 2.6 connections per node. On average, each individual was nominated by 1.3 other innovators and made 4.33 nominations in turn.

In 2022, within the main activity sector of which the agents of change are part, 30% mention the educational sector, 20% the field of social inclusion, 15% transversal, 12% civic involvement, 7% socio-economic development and 5% environment.

Regarding the region of origin, most agents of change come from the Bucharest-Ilfov region (45%), followed by the North-West (13%), North-East (12%), West (9%) and the Center country (9%).

Looking at the legal framework, most agents of change mentioned NGOs (76%), followed by public organizations (13%) and private organizations (9%).

“One of the challenges of the people who change Romania for the better is the fact that sometimes they feel discouraged or even alone in their endeavor, as in the David versus Goliath legend. The Ashoka Map demonstrates both the diversity of actions and their frequency, by identifying more than 700 social innovators who stand out in positive change initiatives. Mapping them into an easy-to-use, digitized and accessible tool aims to close ranks among social innovators and thus maximize the potential of their projects. We also want an easier collaboration between the NGO, public and private sectors, this map facilitating such intersections”, says Silvia Luican, founder of IZI data.

The full Social Innovators Map report is available HERE and the interactive map can be found HERE.

To carry out the study, by using the “snowball” methodology, it started from an initial number of 52 nodes (46 nodes confirmed respondents), people recommended by ASHOKA Romania, aiming for a balanced distribution by fields of activity, gender and regions geographical.

Data collection was carried out in two stages. The first aimed at conducting 305 telephone interviews with the help of 7 operators, between July and September 2022. Following this stage, 299 entries were approved. In a second step, the latter nominated a new wave of suitable individuals, resulting in another 474 unique innovators mapped. They were contacted by email to give consent for their name to be published along with a simplified data set regarding gender, field of activity, experience, region and organization. After the centralization of the agreements, another 339 confirmations were thus added, finally reaching a total of 638 persons confirmed nominally on the map, the remaining up to 779 nominations being anonymized.