Projects

Direct engagement, fostering and enabling Social Entrepreneurs, achieving social and environmental as well as financial sustainability - this is the basic idea behind our initiatives and projects - below you find more information about selected initiatives and projects of the Eos Entrepreneur Foundation

Sustainability in cultivation, distribution and
managing the social enterprise


The "sustainable cocoa and women in leadership roles" project focuses on smallholder cooperatives that are supported through coaching and technical assistance to realize better cocoa quality and increased cocoa productivity in sustainable agroforestry cultivation. These measures help them to sell their cocoa beans at a better price, but also to benefit from economies of scale through increased volume. In addition, through agroforestry cultivation and the sustainable regeneration of productive land along river landscapes, they make a concrete contribution to climate protection and the maintenance of regional water management.

The larger the value that can be created locally, the more resilient their ecosystem becomes. For instance, social entrepreneurs are supported to professionally implement post-harvest processing practices of cocoa beans, including using cocoa beans in pulp in freshly cut pods, in their community in specially established central collection, processing, control and distribution centres. At the same time, when establishing an additional centre, it is managed as a profitable organization. An appropriate infrastructure is essential for the centres. Thus, in addition to fermentation boxes and drying facilities, loyalty with the smallholder farmers, including technical assistance and paying fair cocoa prices, is certainly important, as is the support of accounting and commercialization at the centre level in a broader sense.

Local coaches advise and accompany the social entrepreneurs of the central collection, processing, control, and distribution centres. For quite some time now, the centres and their leads have been supported by our local specialist in commercialization and in this context, we have now also brought in an accounting specialist for the implementation of an accounting solution for the centres. Over the coming months, training will be offered to each team of leaders in the use and improvement of commercialization thanks to moving to digital tools with appropriate software. The aim is also to process payments electronically as soon as possible, primarily to have clarity about every peso in the accounts, not least for the safety of all involved.

Cocoa tree trimming - Training: Healthy pods and cocoa beans

Engineer Alfonso, technical specialist of Fedecacao, explains in the video to the cocoa farmers of the community how to trim the cocoa trees properly. He also demonstrates that it is essential to trim them as a prerequisite for high-quality cocoa beans and correspondingly healthy cocoa pods.

Cocoa beans - Training: Quality Awareness and Improvement

Fedecacao's technical specialist asks in the video one of the producers to pass around a cocoa bean sample to train about cocoa bean quality, specifically, about the taste, color and shape of the bean. At the same time, the engineer stresses the importance of good fermentation for the cocoa beans to develop a nice flavor. This process, followed by adequately drying the cocoa beans, is essentially, determines the quality and, therefore, the price obtained when selling the properly prepared product.

Coaching and advising of social entrepreneurs by local specialists in the ecosystem is a key success factor of our engagements.

Support, empower and promote cocoa cultivation in agroforestry
and women along the value chain

Country:          Colombia
Impact Region:       Pacific lowlands
Focus:          No poverty, decent work, sustainable production, climate action, "cocoa for peace"
Start of Program:         2014
Current Project Phase:   2020 - 2025
Partners:        Other foundations


Women working on equal footing together with others and taking up leadership roles in the ecosystem

Eos Entrepreneur Foundation supports social entrepreneurs who pursue sustainable community benefit initiatives, transfer knowledge, promote prevention, and establishing networks of common interest. Typical initiatives involve basic services that are missing or not continuously provided in underserved communities.

Specifically, the foundation works with local coaches and partners in underserved zones where social entrepreneurs are identified, evaluated, trained and benefit from coaching over a longer period of time in order to support entrepreneurial sustainability on the one hand, and to promote and to accompany the development of basic services for beneficiaries on the other hand. These beneficiaries benefit from locally or regionally offered basic services and do not have to travel for hours to get access to such services.

 Personal Initiatives enable women to generate income and to strengthen the community and the ecosystem 

Country:          Colombia, Nicaragua
Impact Region:       Various regions
Focus:          Advancement of women, decent work, reduce inequalities, support income-generating activities
Start of Program:         2013
Current Project Phase:   2020 - 2023
Partners:        Various Swiss Cantons and Federal Government Agencies 


Promoting Circular Economy by Supporting

Innovation and Personal Responsibility

This project aims to raise awareness of the circular economy in society and to highlight the sustainability of circular economy in the biological and technical cycles. This focus evolved, because we experienced over the last 10 years in coaching social entrepreneurial initiatives that one of the challenges of such initiatives is that society as a whole remains stuck in its behavior focussed on traditional glass, paper and PET recycling, i.e., using or supporting only one of many levers or strategic options to pursue a circular economy. In addition to awareness-raising activities such as holding exhibitions and lectures on the circular economy, which are co-sponsored by local initiators, the Foundation continues to support and empower social entrepreneurial initiatives, especially in the development of innovative solutions to achieve a positive social and environmental impact, such as striving for sustainable cultivation and production methods and promoting changes in consumer behavior. This is also an important contribution to the UN Agenda 2030.


Circular economy means preserving the value of resources

Strengthen the awareness of the circular economy

Planning and conducting an exhibition coupled with complementary lectures helps to contribute to raising awareness about the topic of the circular economy.

  • You will learn more about circular economy and how to realize project ideas.
  • Social entrepreneurial initiatives addressing the circular economy are presented
  • You will have the opportunity to exchange ideas and network with others

Please contact us, if you have an idea and want to support the topic in your region

Develop social entrepreneurship initiatives

By pursuing an initiative that makes a positive impact towards a more sustainable society, you and your team are evolving as a social entrepreneur and contributing towards the circular economy.

Are you interested in a self-assessment to better understand how to further develop your initiative and to scale the social and environmental impact?

With the Eos ECIS Self-Assessment you can conduct an in-depth analysis of your initiative and get in touch with the foundation regarding further steps like coaching.

Promote and Support Circular Economy Initiatives 

Countries:        Switzerland and Latin America
Focus:           Empowerment, innovation, reduce inequality, sustainability
Start of Program:    2016
Current Projekt Phase:    2020 - 2024
Partners:          Local organizers, social entrepreneurs, foundations, and other institutions