Social Founders
Social Founders
- Who We Are
We are a global network of catalysts, change-makers and social entrepreneurs - founders of social enterprises and charities across localities, countries and continents. We have a passion to create positive change, to innovate, and to harness other people's desire for change. See our latest Impact Report.
The Social Founder Network was set up in 2017 by Caroline Diehl MBE, founder and until 2017 CEO, of the Media Trust and Together TV. Our global network includes over 5,000 founders from large and small charities, social enterprises, foundations and community organisations.
Originally set up in the UK in 2017, we have grown our network, and events, in different countries and continents, partnering with EY, INSEAD, the Churchill Fellowship, ChangeNOW, Good Market, CIVA and many others.
In 2022 we launched, and piloted, our first 'deep dive' local group - Hackney Social Founders, in East London, with monthly networking forums, social founder talks, training and 121 mentorship for Hackney-based social founders.
The social founders in our network come from a mix of backgrounds, ages, experience and interests - we share in common our social founder stories, passions and experiences - the good and the bad, the successes and failures, the laughter and the tears.
We connect back to the powerful social founders of the past, and forward to future social founders, young and old.
In May 2023 we set up a Community Interest Company 'Social Impact Projects CIC' to support and house the Social Founders network and our sister project Impact Media.
Social Impact Projects CIC is a UK-registered company limited by guarantee, with a built-in asset lock. The founding company directors are Caroline Diehl MBE and Marion Janner OBE. Marion has been an active member of Social Founders since our launch in 2017. She is also an experienced social founder of Star Wards and Bright, and passionate about social impact.
In December 2024 Sadaffe Abid, Lahore-based social founder and CEO of Circle, previous CEO of Kashf Foundation, and an Entrepreneur in Residence at INSEAD with Caroline, joined the board of Social Impact Projects CIC as our third company director. See our News announcement.
Sadaffe Abid, Director, Social Impact Projects CIC
Caroline Diehl MBE and Marion Janner OBE, founding directors of Social Impact Projects CIC
Setting up the Social Founder Network
Caroline Diehl set up the Social Founder Network in 2017, after stepping down as Founder CEO of Media Trust and becoming Executive Chair of Together TV, the UK broadcast TV channel she founded.
Caroline Diehl MBE
"Creating a network of social founders is a joy, and an exciting new challenge. I want to see social founders thrive, and be celebrated. I find their stories inspirational. As founder CEO of the Media Trust and Together TV - the UK television channel (The Community Channel), and a founder trustee of the Small Charities Coalition, I know well both the challenges and rewards of being a founder in the social impact sector. "
Caroline Diehl MBE, Founder of the Social Founder Network, Media Trust and Together TV
Caroline founded the Media Trust in 1994, and the Community Channel (now called Together TV) in 2000. Caroline was Chief Executive of both organisations until 2017, and Executive Chair at Together TV from 2016 to 2022, after the channel relaunched in 2016 as a charitable Community Benefit Society - the world's first community-owned national TV channel.
Caroline lives in London, and is an Entrepreneur in Residence at INSEAD, a Churchill Fellow, a Fellow of the RSA, and a Governor of the East London NHS Foundation Trust. She set up the Social Founder Network in July 2017.
Contact Caroline at caroline@socialfounder.org or on LinkedIn.
Read Caroline's blog about why she set up Social Founders.
