The DelFin project focused on four rural regions in central Europe: Saalekreis/Saxony-Anhalt in Germany, Hajdu-Bihar county in Hungary, the Piedmont region in Italy, and Duga-Resa/Karlovac County in Croatia. These regions face similar societal challenges, such as ageing, depopulation, brain drain, unemployment and the absence of basic and quality services. 

As traditional public services often prove ineffective in addressing these issues, social innovation, including social entrepreneurship, is becoming increasingly important in facilitating the progressive economic transformation of rural regions and developing sustainable solutions. However, several sector-specific challenges, such as a lack of information and awareness, a shortage of skilled workers and management, the want of a business mindset, and insufficient funding, hinder the full realisation of social enterprises’ potential. To address these challenges, DelFin developed solutions to improve the financial ecosystems of social enterprises in rural areas.

The DelFin project sought to unlock the potential of the rural social economy sector by:

In 2019, after identifying the challenges faced by communities and the social economy sector in the target regions, the DelFin partners recognised the project's need to address the requirements of social enterprises. The aim was to unlock the sector's potential in developing solutions for rural society's challenges. 

To address these needs, by March 2020 the partners created tools to promote social entrepreneurship, with a specific focus on business support solutions, financing and funding schemes, as well as evaluation and impact measurement methodologies.To evaluate the most promising tools, pilot actions were carried out in each target region by October 2021. 

Following the results of these pilot projects, by March 2022 capacity-building activities were conducted targeting public authorities and financial institutions. These were aimed at enhancing the capabilities of key stakeholders in promoting social entrepreneurship in rural areas. Finally, regional action plans and a transnational strategy were devised to help integrate the project's most promising accomplishments into mainstream practices.

The project effectively applied the quadruple helix model which shows how four key groups (government, academia, industry and civil society) interact in a community to drive innovation and development. This approach proved vital in developing the necessary financial environment for social enterprises in remote rural regions. 

Furthermore, the initiative highlighted the need for increased awareness of social enterprises and social entrepreneurship opportunities in rural areas due to the prevailing lack of knowledge. In smaller communities, especially those with a tradition of self-reliance, entrepreneurs often remain unaware that their ventures have social relevance. Consequently, they may not realise they are eligible for public policy support. To successfully mobilise the entire ecosystem and raise awareness of social entrepreneurship, it is imperative to adopt a bottom-up approach. This approach is the primary conclusion and a key success factor of this good practice. 

To facilitate the bottom-up development of rural social enterprise ecosystems, it is recommended to use the DelFin toolbox, along with the methodologies and processes of action planning, pilots and capacity building. These resources have been collaboratively planned, tested and made accessible online by the DelFin partnership through the project's communication channels.

Given that DelFin was implemented in four different regions with cultural, experiential, governmental and geographical diversity, the lessons learned, conclusions drawn and methodologies applied and tested can be confidently adapted and mainstreamed across Europe.