Work and who we work with

How we

Wilstar is a non-profit venture which is focused on social impact and supporting people who initiate sustainable lasting change to create a better world.

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How

We Work

Innovation and Incubation

Human and Natural Capital

Advocacy

Systems Reform

Wilstar is the nonprofit social impact arm of the Arne Wilhelmsen family office and a space in which the Wilhelmsen family feel they can most effectively contribute to our society. Awilhelmsen is an investment company located in Oslo, Norway. The Company was founded in 1939 and is now involved in the following business areas: Cruise (RCCL), Real Estate (Linstow), Shipping & Offshore (Awilco), Capital (Awilhelmsen Capital) and Retail (Power). The Awilhelmsen company is owned by the Arne Wilhelmsen family.

The Awilhelmsen group of companies and the family has over the years been involved in philanthropy and social impact both directly and indirectly through their partners. There has always been a clear family philosophy that Awilhelmsen should create value for society as well as pursuing its commercial goals. Historically the family has responded to many philanthropic requests and has been very proud of the impact they have managed to create around the world. Wilstar has been founded out of the family’s desire to have real and lasting social impact for future generations.

Innovation and Incubation

Support innovative leaders, new digital models, and innovative platforms to better meet the needs of our marine environment. Support impact across systems and geographies to encourage broader innovation and systems change.

Human and Natural Capital

Support efforts to recruit, train, and retain effective environmental leaders. Support initiatives to grow and protect natural capital. Build a talent pool that reflects the racial needs of the regions they are operating in.

Advocacy

Support a robust ecosystem of global engagement, including grassroots and grass tops advocacy. Support effective social entrepreneurs looking to change global behaviours around consumption and production of the goods we consume.

Systems Reform

Support reforms that allow systems to become more responsive and adaptive, and that will spur environmental improvement. Provide targeted support to efforts that aim to encourage large-scale and transformational change. Support the earth in all the challenges it faces.

Who We

Work With

Social Entrepreneurs

Other funders and
supporters of social impact

Businesses

Social Entrepreneurs

At Wilstar we believe in solving some of the world’s greatest challenges, through innovation and through supporting social entrepreneurs and businesses that provide sustainable solutions to these challenges. The social entrepreneurs we support are typically early-stage socially or environmentally focused businesses, we believe have true scaling potential, thereby maximizing their impact. However, we also support more mature social businesses where impact is already evident though there is still growth potential, on these occasions we hope to assist in scaling the proven concept to other communities, so they can benefit from the innovation.

We seek to work together with social entrepreneurs over a period from 3-6 years providing varying funding amounts. The largest funding amounts are typically reserved for social entrepreneurs that have potential for systemic change. Additionally, Wilstar provides business development support to all our investees and we are especially focused on putting in place good governance procedures and impact measurement and management processes. This, we believe, allows our investees to accelerate their growth, both in terms of impact and financial independence. We are also invested catalysing likeminded capital into social and environmental investments and so support various ecosystem initiatives globally, to encourage that movement of funds into impact focused investments.

The social entrepreneurs that we support typically:

Are early-stage.
Provide innovative solutions to social or environmental challenges.
Have true scaling potential, thereby maximising their impact or they are mature social businesses where impact is already evident though there is still growth potential.

Other funders and supporters of social impact

We strongly believe that in order to create social and environmental impact at scale, we are reliant on working in partnerships with other likeminded organisations. Therefore, whenever we invest we prefer co-funders to partner with. It is important for Wilstar to show our financial stakeholders, that we are willing to share the risk with them by financing social entrepreneurs alongside them. For the investees in Wilstar´s portfolio this is beneficial as well, as it allows access to more knowledge and resources, which in turn helps achieve impact scaling at a faster pace.

The Funders and Supporters of Social Impact that we partner with are typically:

Likeminded organisations.
Willing to invest in social entrepreneurs and businesses that provide sustainable solutions to social or environmental challenges alongside us.

Businesses

Wilstar acknowledges that to create accelerated social impact, we cannot purely rely on social innovation, we need businesses in general to adopt principles in line with global goals for people and our planet, creating shared value for all stakeholders. That is why we work openly with all partners to share our approaches for creating, managing and measuring impact. We believe that businesses should be open and willing to measure their holistic impact, which in turn will enable them to focus on creating shared value and positive impact. We also partner with businesses, when we work with the social entrepreneurs in our portfolio, as we know that the expertise coming from business will be essential for the companies in our portfolio to grow and obtain financial sustainability.