The government wants to develop the little-known branch of the social and solidarity economy

The social and solidarity economy is an ecosystem. Based on the principle of solidarity and social utility, it makes it possible to initiate projects before they benefit from traditional structures such as bank loans and investor financing. This could be a craftsman who employs a person in integration. Some find themselves closing the door to traditional banking networks under the pretext that their economic model is too fragile. This is when the solidarity economy can intervene.

Significant weight in the real economy

It is estimated that around 165,000 companies are now integrating the solidarity economy, which represents nearly 2.5 million employees and 10% of our GDP, the national wealth produced by France, i.e. some 25 Billions of Euro’s.

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The government plan was presented on Monday November 6 by the Minister for SMEs, Commerce, Crafts and Tourism, Olivia Grégoire. The objective is to convince territories, regions and cities to develop this operating principle. The initiation of social and solidarity projects in rural areas will be encouraged by a special fund with three million euros over three years, from 2024. Strengthening the mechanisms will also involve the creation of a full-time equivalent, one per region, which will devote itself entirely to it.

Solidarity finance

Unlike “crowdfunding”, solidarity finance is a non-risky investment, halfway between savings and investment. Today, a million French people invest part of their money this way. The total outstanding amount, that is to say the amount of sums invested in solidarity finance, exceeds 10 billion euros and is constantly increasing.

But above all there is the responsiveness of this finance: solidarity savers do not hesitate to support sometimes atypical projects, which makes it possible to prime the financing pump, where the traditional circuit often requires significant guarantees. Finally, there is no immediate search for profit, even less pressure from shareholders.