When Firstport started work in 2007 as Scotland’s social enterprise development agency, our aim was to help social entrepreneurs – people who have an idea to help their environment or their community – develop those seeds of ideas and make them happen. With our help, people can make changes in the way they do business, help their communities and make a tangible difference.

We provide a full package of support that includes seed funding, business advice, and connections to help social entrepreneurs make their ideas a reality.

We manage the Scottish Government’s Social Entrepreneurs Fund which provides small grants for people looking to test out an idea. Check out our funding page for more information. We are also the start-up delivery partner for the Just Enterprise consortium – through this, we provide free business support for people looking to get started.

Since April 2009 we have made over 1000 awards and distributed £7 million across Scotland. Our funders include Big Lottery Fund, Scottish Government, Resilient Scotland and Highlands & Islands Enterprise.

We have responded to over 5000 enquiries from budding social entrepreneurs over the past 10 years and help three people every week to get their social enterprises off the ground. You can see some of them in our new video above. Find out more by reading our 10-year report Learning to Start Something Good.

Our programmes include LaunchMe and What if... Girvan.

Our new strategy document is available for download here: Increasing social impact through entrepreneurship.