Funding Schemes

The Enhancing Self-Reliance Through District Partnership Programme of the Home Affairs Department provides seed grants for eligible organisations to set up or expand SEs. The SEs funded by the Programme have to provide job opportunities for the socially disadvantaged groups and/or products/services meeting their specific needs, so as to help them achieve self-reliance and integrate effectively into the community. Also, the funded SEs have to become commercially sustainable after the funding period.

The funding ceiling for each approved SE project is $3 million and the maximum funding period is three years. The grant may be used for initial capital expenditure and operating expenses for a maximum of three years.

The Enhancing Employment of People with Disabilities through Small Enterprise Project (the Project) of the Social Welfare Department aims to enhance the employment of people with disabilities through market-driven approach and direct creation of more work opportunities. The Project provides seed money to non-governmental organisations to support the creation of small enterprises/ businesses to ensure people with disabilities can enjoy genuine employment in a carefully planned and sympathetic working environment.

The ceiling of grant is $3 million per business and the maximum funding period is three years. The business is expected to become self-sustaining after the funding period.

The Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship Development Fund (SIE Fund) aims to foster the development of a social innovation ecosystem in Hong Kong where social entrepreneurs can thrive and thereby address social needs and alleviate the problem of poverty and social exclusion through their innovative ideas, products and services.

In building up the social innovation ecosystem, the SIE Fund accords priority to three areas of work, namely research, capacity building and innovative programmes. Intermediaries have been engaged to implement different programmes to recruit promising social entrepreneurs, to groom budding startups and to help proven models scale up.