New Silk Roads conducted a feasibility study for DOEN Ventures for a new impact investment fund for the cultural and creative sector in Europe. Together with an 100 Funds, we interviewed over 40 impact investors, artists, and cultural entrepreneurs to discuss the opportunities and challenges for impact investment in arts and culture, specifically in the Netherlands. Subsequently, New Silk Roads is advising DOEN Ventures, Moleskine Foundation, and Opes Impact Fund with setting up the impact investment fund for culture and creativity in Europe, sourcing investible cultural ventures in Europe, and making introductions to potential LPs.

Countries

Year

DOEN Ventures, OPES Fund, Moleskine Foundation

Clients

DOEN: Impact Investment in Arts and Culture

New Silk Roads supported ReBootKamp (RBK), the first immersive coding bootcamp in Tunisia, to scale up across the country and internationally, aiming to train young people to become employment-ready software engineers. Over three years, our services have enabled RBK to increase the competitiveness of its curriculum and develop comprehensive policies and procedures. We provided support on gender inclusion, conducting a gender baseline study and advising on gender-based strategies, resulting in more women graduating from the bootcamps. Additionally, we implemented a robust monitoring, evaluation, and learning framework to track training effectiveness and job placements, enhancing RBK's strategic positioning and competitiveness.

Supporters

ReBootKamp (RBK): Training Youth to Work in the Tunisian ICT Sector

New Silk Roads is currently the learning partner for the Alliance for Socially Engaged Arts, a philanthropic collaborative programme that champions the power of socially engaged arts in driving positive social change across Europe. The Alliance is currently in its pilot phase, and includes a fellowship bringing together 15 socially engaged arts leaders alongside a range of advocacy activities.

Beginning with the development of a learning framework for the programme, we are conducting an evaluation of the pilot phase that will drive sustainable learning in future cycles of the programme.

Allianz Foundation, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Daniel & Nina Carasso Foundation, European Cultural Foundation, Fondazione Cariplo, Fondazione Compagnia di San Paolo, Santander Funcación, het Cultuurfonds, Hilti Foundation, la Caixa Foundation, King Baudouin Foundation, Moleskine Foundation, Stiftung Mercator Schweiz

Supportors

Alliance for Socially Engaged Arts: Learning Partner

For the Climate and Land Use Alliance (CLUA), New Silk Roads developed a strategic foresight report, organised two mini think tanks, and wrote a strategic line of action for just and sustainable technology in tropical forest countries. The assignment included engaging consultants in Indonesia and Costa Rica, conducting interviews with a wide range of climate organisations, environment defenders and digital rights specialists, analysing CLUA's grant portfolio, and involving experts in digital rights and climate justice. The outcomes were presented at CLUA's strategic retreat with representatives from member foundations, including Climate Works, Porticus, the Packard Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Moore Foundation, and Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies.

Indonesia, Brazil, Colombia, Peru and Mexico

Climate Works, Porticus, the Packard Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, and Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies.

How can alternative funding models better support communities who actively create and maintain heritage, often outside formal institutional frameworks? Together with UNESCO Netherlands and 100 Funds, we investigated a range of funding models that are aligned with Faro Convention principles, which center heritage within citizens' right to participate in cultural life and as a resource for human and economic development. New Silk Roads contributed to the brochure by providing guidance on innovative financing and governance models from lease-to-own mechanisms and non-extractive loans to participatory grantmaking and p2p art publishing and financing platforms. 

The brochure #Onbetaalbaar (in Dutch) can be found here: https://lnkd.in/etn6REhf.

Client

UNESCO Alternative Funding Models for Heritage Communities

New Silk Roads is designing and managing a global community of practice for Fondation Botnar’s Fit4Future programme, connecting partners across Asia, Latin America, and Africa. This member-driven community of practice is designed to foster knowledge exchange around leveraging digital technologies to promote young people’s wellbeing, inclusion, and collective agency.

Our role includes activating the member-driven design process for the community of practice, facilitating learning activities, and organising regional and global meetups for community members.

Colombia, Ghana, India, Indonesia, and Vietnam

New Silk Roads offered project management, facilitation, and learning documentation of the "Collaborate for Impact" Conference for Impact Europe in Tbilisi, Georgia. Impact Europe is a network organisation of impact investors, impact funders and financial institutions based in Brussels. The event brought together business support organizations from Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, the Middle East, and North Africa and representatives from various EU countries. The conference demonstrated the effectiveness of Impact Europe programmes to current and future donors, partners, investors, and other stakeholders, while facilitating knowledge sharing and meaningful connections within the diverse impact ecosystem.

Project Management and facilitation of several multi-day “Futures Labs” in Egypt and Tunisia to imagine the future of localized climate adaptation in the MENA region. The themes of the labs were "Imagining Just Food Systems in Tunisia" and "Exploring Avenues for a Regenerative Built Environment in Egypt". Alongside these Labs, we hosted an online 'Futures Talks' lecture series, which featured insightful discussions on future design, sustainable cities, and energy scenarios.

Since 2013, the New Silk Roads fundraising team has supported Hivos with tailored business development services for its programmes on private sector development, job creation, climate justice, freedom of expression and arts and culture in the Middle East and North Africa. Our support included proposal writing, theory of change development, and strategic fundraising advice to Hivos senior programme management. Some of our success stories include securing EUR 8.1 million from Palladium, EUR 9.5 million and EUR 5.5 million and EUR 2.2. million from the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs (LEAD I, II and BOOST Programs), EUR 5.5 million and EUR 2 million at Sida and 550K from the U.S. State Department.

Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Sida, U.S. State Department, European Union, Palladium

Funds

Commissioned by the Challenge Fund for Youth Employment (CFYE), New Silk Roads conducted an in-depth research project, “Digital Jobs and Women in the MENA Region.” The study explored how digitally-enabled jobs can create sustainable employment opportunities for women across Egypt, Jordan, Tunisia, and Morocco. Leveraging its expertise in qualitative research and regional insights, New Silk Roads worked closely with CFYE’s portfolio of impact-driven organisations to examine barriers to workforce participation, gender dynamics, and the role of ecosystem actors. By engaging with diverse stakeholders, including NGOs, governments, and private sector entities, the project delivered actionable insights and recommendations to foster inclusive economic growth and empower women in the digital economy across the MENA region.

We supported Impact Partner to raise EUR 530,000 at Expertise France. As part of this program, New Silk Roads provided tailored fundraising training for 10 business support organizations and personalized one-on-one coaching for Tunisian startups on business models, fundraising, and partnerships. Additionally, we facilitated matchmaking activities that connected six Tunisian BSOs with European partners, international investors, and experts from the Netherlands, Germany, Sweden, and France.

European Union, Innov'i - EU4Innovation, International Finance Cooperation (IFC)

The New Silk Roads M&E team has provided Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) support to several Hivos programmes focused on youth employment, entrepreneurship development, and the green transition in the MENA region. For example, our team led the evaluation of the GreenWorks program, including a through desk review, key informant interviews, and over 400 online and CATI surveys. We also measured the number of direct jobs created and supported by the Hivos GreenWorks project in Algeria, Egypt, and Tunisia. Furthermore, we conducted an internal md-term evaluation of the LEAD Coworking for Sustainable Employment Programme following the OECD-DAC criteria. Finally, we provided training to various organisations in MENA to set up their own MEL frameworks and support with data collection.

Funders

Impact Assessment for Hivos Job Creation Programs

Through fundraising training and coaching, New Silk Roads has supported Athar, a startup accelerator in Upper Egypt, to establish a Green Acceleration Track, which has now become a core program alongside their Tech Acceleration Track. Our fundraising team subsequently helped Athar to secure additional rounds of funding from the Finnish Embassy in Egypt and USAID, solidifying the green acceleration track's sustainability. Additionally, we collaborated with Athar to design new programmes and played a pivotal role in launching Orange Corners' Innovation Fund in partnership with Falak Startups. Furthermore, we provided tailored training to the top management team on fundraising and proposal writing. With support from EBRD, New Silk Roads is now expanding its collaboration with Athar to engage its middle management and support the team as they navigate the organisation’s growth phase and further Athar’s mission in Upper Egypt.

European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), Finish Embassy Cairo

Athar: Scaling Green Startups in Upper Egypt

How can cultural practices driving the climate transition be supported through decentralized infrastructures? Instead of starting from major urban centers, PACESETTERS focus on peripheral and rural contexts as sites of artistic research and practice. Current cases include Genalguacil (a small village in southern Spain), Nowa Huta (a socialist realist district in Kraków), and Galway (on Europe’s western edge). Together with this Horizon Europe consortium, and 100Funds, New Silk Roads is developing and testing a pre-accelerator model and impact fund for artistic entrepreneurship in rural and remote areas.

The European Federation for Creative Economy

LAB Genalguacil, Galway International Arts Festival, Norwegian University of Science and Technology. The Jagiellonian University and others

Pacesetters: Rural and remote artistic practices driving the climate transition

New Silk Roads offered project management, facilitation, and event management services for the 2024 Green Growth Summit in Tunis and Cairo, bringing together over 400 entrepreneurs, investors, business support organisations, donors, DFIs, and policymakers interested in the green transition. Key activities included organising donor roundtables with 27 funders, resulting in the creation of two donor task forces, and hosting investor engagement activities such as investment deal rooms. Additionally, our fundraising team secured additional event sponsorships from regional donors to expand the summits’ reach and impact.

Hivos, FMO - Dutch Entrepreneurial Development Bank, Expertise France's Greenov'i, Pathfinder International/USAID WESEP, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, the Challenge Fund for Youth Employment, Impact Europe, and the European Union. 

New Silk Roads provides online and offline fundraising courses and coaching to business support organisations, SMEs, and cultural organizations. Initially contracted by Hivos, we provided training to over 35+ organisations in fundraising, theory of change, monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL) and donor communications. Under our guidance, 8 organisations successfully raised EUR 8 million in funding. Later, we also provided fundraising training for organizations such as INCO, The Finish Embassy in Cairo, Movies That Matter/ Cinema without Borders and Creatives for Climate.

Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Libya, Jordan, Lebanon

Years

Finnish Embassy in Cairo, INCO, Movies That Matter/ Cinema Without Borders, Creatives for Climate

Other clients

New Silk Roads implemented investor matchmaking sessions which paired promising young entrepreneurs from Egypt and Tunisia to regional and international informal investors and funds. Through connecting entrepreneurs with access to capital, they were better positioned to grow their business and create jobs in their cities and communities. This project was implemented on behalf of Hivos Impact Investments.

New Silk Roads  initiated the Afkar Fellowship for changemakers in North Africa, through which we coached fourteen fellows over a period of one and a half year in leadership, fundraising, communication, filmmaking to increase their impact. The Afkar Fellows encompassed an eclectic cohort, including a visual artist and gallerist from Libya, a media entrepreneur from Egypt, a calligrapher from the Western Sahara, a technologist from Tunisia and an activist for LGBTQI+ rights. This unique project was implemented together with What Took You So Long in Sweden and Wasabi in Tunisia with the financial support of the Swedish Institute.

Other Partners

New Silk Roads is providing fundraising, leadership training, and support with monitoring, evaluation, and learning to Flat6Labs, one of the leading business accelerators in the MENA region. One of our success stories is securing a $3.5 million USD tender from UNDP for the "Green Growth and Jobs Accelerator Program", an entrepreneurship support programme implemented in Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Jordan, and Algeria. New Silk Roads is developing an e-learning curriculum for green SMEs, including several digital courses on green business development, impact measurement, and access to finance for SMEs.

Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Jordan, and Algeria

Danish-Arab Partnership Programme (DAPP) of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark

UNDP Green Growth and Jobs Accelerator (GGJA)

Since 2013, we have organised a range of learning events for Hivos program teams and their partners. This included gatherings for partners in Tunis and Djerba, a post-COP27 event in Sinai, Egypt, and a learning event in the Hague in collaboration with the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs. These events brought together a variety of Hivos partners, including climate justice organisations, business support organisations, investors, creative hubs, and universities across Africa, the Middle East, and Europe. Our role encompassed event management and logistics, curation of speakers, facilitation and moderations of panels, and documenting key learning outcomes.

Challenge Fund for Youth Employment, Impact Europe, Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Other Clients

We provided project management support for the production of Vertical Atlas, a book exploring the geopolitics of digital technology. From an investigation into the lithium mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo to maps of the fiber-optic submarine cables, Vertical Atlas contains artworks and essays by over 50 leading international designers, artists, and thinkers. The book launch and exhibition opening took place at Het Nieuwe Instituut in Rotterdam with lectures by Nanjala Nyabola and Benjamin H. Bratton and a performance by artist Francois Knoetze. You can download the high-resolution version here.

The Philanthropy Europe Association (Philea) contracted New Silk Roads to facilitate a two-year peer-learning journey on international cooperation for the Funders International Network for Development (FIND) member community. This initiative includes a series of online deep dives and in-person meetings in Brussels and Lisbon, focusing on emerging trends and practices such as locally-led development, innovative funding instruments, and collaborations with African philanthropy. The New Silk Roads team has curated a lineup of dynamic speakers for these sessions and will also develop an interactive digital knowledge product. The FIND member community is co-chaired by “la Caixa” Foundation and Anglo American Foundation.

Funders International Network for Development (Co-Chair, “la Caixa” Foundation and Co-Chair, Anglo American Foundation)

How can we utilise innovative finance to increase sustainable energy access around the world? New Silk Roads  tackled this question through researching and producing a publication which provides critical insights and practical recommendations for practitioners, donors, and investors to unlock the capital needed to fuel sustainable energy access and empower vulnerable communities. The report, commissioned by EnDev on behalf of RVO and GIZ, includes a deep dive into traditional tools like grants, debt, equity, and risk-sharing instruments, alongside emerging tools such as carbon finance, aggregation, and anchor-based financing.

GIZ, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, Netherlands Foreign Ministry, Norad

Endev Innovative Finance for Energy Study

For the Prince Claus Fund, New Silk Roads conducted a comprehensive donor mapping, established a fundraising strategy with a focus on high-potential donors, and organised fundraising missions across EU countries and the United States. We also fundraised directly for the Fund’s core activities, helping to secure EUR 1.2 million from the Dutch Postcode Lottery for an arts and culture program in Russia, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia. We also led the fundraising efforts for a worldwide heritage preservation program at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation

Alliance for Socially Engaged Arts (hosted by the Network of European Foundations)

Alliance for Socially Engaged Arts: Learning Partner