Social Finance and Philanthropy

Digital Pioneers consists of two projects. 1. Digital Pioneers Fund. This fund lends expertise and financial support to innovative Internet initiatives of small-scale social organisations. Starting in December 2002, the Fund has supported over 120 projects in eleven rounds. 2. Digital Pioneers Academy. The second project is the Digital Pioneers Academy, in which the project leaders of promising initiatives are supported by many (international) experts in writing a financial plan for their project. Digital Pioneer projects play an important role in the involvement of citizens in social developments in communities and in the participation in democracy. Since December 2002 more than 136 projects were selected out of 1000+ applications. The project started from various perspectives: * Independent produced content contributes to opinion making, information provision and participation and should exist next to traditional media and service providers (prosumers); * Lack of business models for civil society projects in public domain of the Internet; * No funding possibilities for grass-roots internet initiatives (public media policy); * Private initiatives can contribute to innovation in public domain (open innovation models). On our website you will find the results of some of the selected projects with their own unique scope, community and technical know-how. We hope that the examples and best practices inspire you to re-use the knowledge and experience of these Digital Pioneers. Stichting Nederland Kennisland has executed this program with financial support of the Ministry responsible for Media Policy in the Netherlands. For any additional information or comments you may contact us at info@digitalepioniers.nl