Title of the session: Members day- Korea country session

Speakers:
Yun Chung, Manager, Root Impact
Mihyun Cho, The Happiness Foundation
Insoo Kim, The Circle Foundation
Sunjoo Cha, The Asan Nanum Foundation
Summary of the content of the session:
Asan Nanum Foundation
The Foundations main target is youths. Due to the limited support by the government as youths do
not the influence the ballot box over the incumbent government, the Foundation wants to fill the
gap and address the urgent needs of youths to provide support, especially to those who are facing
multiple issues. The Foundation is seeking private-level solution for growth and self-reliance of
youths: especially for 5 blind-spots such as out-of-home youths, juvenile delinquents, North Korean
refugee youth, youth single parents and disabled youth.
There are various programmes tailored for different needs. For young individuals, there exists the
Entrepreneurship Education for a Child and Asan Academy. For young organisations, there are
Startup Competition and the Angel Investment Fund. For the underprivileged, there is a special
curriculum called the Asan Frontier Youth Fellowship.
The Circle Foundation
The Circle Foundation was established with a donation of US$100 million in 2012 with the mission of
providing equal opportunities for everyone. Its first three projects were launched in 2013.
The Circle Foundation selects 3 plus years old companies who are creating social value for local
communities. These companies often face financial restrictions as the government subsidies drain
out. Key characteristics include 1 to 1 mentoring, virtuous cycle through Partnership and Networking
and capability building focused.
One example of the project is DongNe BangNe All Around the Town, which aims to revitalize the
old downtown in Chuncheon. The project transformed the discarded shabby inn in the old
downtown to a vibrant and young guesthouse with free drinks. It collaborates with local shops and
restaurants for co-marketing. Another example is SunSan Happy Working Pace which aims to
provide stable job opportunities for the disabled living in the area.
The Happiness Foundation
SK Group is the 3rd largest conglomerate in Korea, focused on energy, telecom and trading. The
Foundation focuses on supporting social enterprises and education.

Companies that meet the social and financial Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and Milestones will
receive financial resources from the Foundation. On the other hand, non-monetary support provided
to social enterprises includes mentoring, business partnerships, market promotions etc. Challenges
faced by the Foundation includes the lack of drive by the enterprises to grow and the plateau that
they experience even with subsidies that have limited effect.
Questions and Answers:
Question 1: What is the state of sustainability of social enteprises?
Most are in a poor state especially due to scarce government funding, pushing many on the brink of
bankruptcies. This requires support for sustainability
Question 2: How are early/nascent-stage of social enterprises supported? How can they attract
more investments?
Social enterprises receive government subsidies and a Social Enterprise Promotion Agency. This
agency provides accelerators for very early stage enterprises. However, a glaring weakness is that
the government subsidy is not used for its stated purposes. Funds that are supposed to be spent on
infrastructure is instead used on other purposes, such as hiring.
Question 3: Innovation Centre Impact Foundation: What is the thinking of investing beyond Korea
for social enterprises?
Many Korean enterprises are looking towards investing globally for larger markets and market
segmentation to draw higher revenues.
Question 4: When did the social investment emphasis come about?
Impact Investment was a rather recent development, only establishing 2 years ago in 2013, albeit
with much research and preparation.
Question 5: How do you handle shareholders, if any?
As a public company due to its conglomerate nature, the Happiness Foundation is fortunate to not
face any pressure from shareholders
Questions 6: Do you need to find any business partnerships?
The Group companies expands relationship with social enterprises. From 2015, the Happiness
Foundation is aiming to spread its relationship for CSR.
Question 7: What is the method used to come up with the Social Impact Assessment?
Generally, all organisations represented in the panel are currently working with independent
organisations. However, this is dependent on the Impact Assessment that one is keen on. The
ultimate difficulty lies in the calculation of the qualitative aspect of the outcome.