Good Deed Foundation (GDF, Heateo SA in Estonian) is a launchpad for new and exciting social initiatives. Its mission is to develop the field of social entrepreneurship in Estonia. It does this by supporting start-up and step change social enterprises in its portfolio, and advocating that social entrepreneurship is an effective way to solve burning social issues through communication, training and lobbying.
The focus of GDF is its portfolio: projects and organisations that show the greatest potential to solve pressing problems in Estonian society. They come from two sources - some are established by GDF, others are found by regularly gauging the effectiveness of existing organisations. Once it has determined the solutions with the greatest potential, it supports their realisation and growth bymeans of both financial investment and professional consulting (e.g. volunteers from Swedbank, Hill & Knowlton, Fontes, law offices etc.). The driving idea behind the support is to create the greatest possible change in society.
In seven years it has fostered the development of more than 12 social initiatives. The best known are the Estonian homeless football team, the educational program Noored Kooli / Youth to School, which takes after Teach First (UK) and Teach For America (USA) and Estonian business coalition against HIV. Common to all its initiatives, it picks out the ideas and solutions that have the greatest potential to positively transform Estonian society. It helps to realise these ideas by applying the venture philanthropy model, i.e. by engaging in long-term financial support and providing expert volunteers.
