AG2R LA MONDIALE’S Innovation Fund: changing the scale of projects for societal innovation

Social welfare groups have social work projects as well as financial and human resources which may be valuable in societal experiments. Initially they provided individualised assistance and then financial support to associations. However‚ in view of the magnitude of the needs‚ it became clear that help was necessary to finance innovative and meaningful projects to respond to the change of scale. This is why the AG2R LA MONDIALE Innovation Fund was created in 2010. It selects projects which are likely to lead to further projects, and then it pays experts to help study the prerequisites for ambitious development. If a project is selected‚ the fund invests in it substantially but for a limited period of three years. The selected projects must rapidly decide what to do when the investment comes to an end. The fund was able to help the development of a variety of initiatives which would not have been possible otherwise.