How to build an ‘impact city’: insights from a decade in the Hague

Every city has its own “special sauce” when it comes to supporting an impact economy, reckons Coos Santing. Just as well – as the programme he runs, the Hague’s “ImpactCity” , sees increasing competition (albeit mostly of the healthy kind) from other cities around the world.

More and more places now invest in “the global startup revolution”, as the Hague’s impact economy strategy points out. And, “while competition used to be primarily between countries, the competition is now played out at the city level”. 

The Netherlands’ third-largest city has been a serious player in that contest since 2015, when it launched the ImpactCity programme, aiming to offer “an attractive environment for entrepreneurs focused on innovations for a better world”. The hope is that support for “doing good and doing business”, as it puts it, will enable the transition to a sustainable economy. 

ImpactCity is set to continue until at least 2030. It sits within the municipality’s economy department, with a budget of €1m-€2m per year, and focuses on six pillars: visibility, networks, access to growth capital, infrastructure, talent and “space to experiment”. Current programmes include the city’s annual ImpactFest event, a startup-in-residence scheme which invites entrepreneurs to devise solutions to problems within the government, and the Hague Innovators’ Awards, offering cash prizes of up to €15,000. 

• Read our Editor’s Post: A decade of ImpactCity – fuelling founders in the ‘city of peace and justice’

Pioneers Post spoke to Santing on the sidelines of the 10th edition of ImpactFest last month to find out more about what he and his team have learned to date.

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1. Branding and positioning come first

From the get-go, visibility was a priority at ImpactCity. “We have six pillars – six topics we cover – and branding and marketing and communication is actually the first one,” says Santing. This emphasis is unusual among similar programmes, he adds.

In practice, this has meant publishing “hundreds of interviews” over the years with impact entrepreneurs to help them secure local, national and international media coverage and gain visibility within the city, while also promoting the ImpactCity programme itself – and downplaying its connections to the government.

“Many people say, ‘Oh, is it the municipality behind this?’ That was also done on purpose,” he says. The thinking was that a government initiative would be less appealing.

2. Effort + luck = a “rich supply” of capital providers

Access to finance is another fundamental element, says Santing, who has “put a lot of effort” into helping local firms access national or European funds and attracting impact investors. One big success came in 2020 when US venture philanthropy funder Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation selected the Hague as the base for its first European office, helping to cement the city’s credentials. Last year, ImpactCity created its first place-based investment fund, the Social Impact Fund The Hague, aiming to raise €8m-€10m to back enterprises working on inclusive employment. The fund consists of three instruments – a technical assistance loan, seed capital, and venture capital. 

“I think we now have quite a rich supply of capital providers in the city,” says Santing. It helps, of course, that the Hague and the Netherlands more generally have strong ties to major financial and institutional players – banks, pension funds and FMO, the Dutch entrepreneurial development bank. “We are a little bit lucky in our country,” he says, adding that one way to “pay it forward” to less wealthy places is by participating in European projects that share insights across borders.  

It’s almost impossible to do it without serious money and serious numbers

3. It takes “serious money” to do it properly – but you can start with procurement in the meantime 

ImpactCity’s annual budget of €1m-€2m – which covers the cost of eight to 10 team members, the annual Impact Fest, and various other programmes – is “not a lot”, says Santing. But it’s still what he calls “serious money”. 

“It’s almost impossible to do it without serious money and serious numbers. [Otherwise] you can only do something with procurement, or something which is already in the budget,” he says. 

That’s not to dismiss what can be achieved with procurement, however. In the Hague, a “startup–in-residence” programme involves inviting entrepreneurs to test ideas that could solve problems facing government bodies and agencies. Successful ideas lead to contracts to provide their product or service. So far around 130 startups have completed this programme (which recently won a European Enterprise Promotion Award).

“Cities can do a lot in terms of the things they buy themselves… that’s something every city can start with,” says Santing.

4. From zero hubs to nine: ecosystem builders can fill the gaps 

Entrepreneurs need access to physical spaces to meet and make things happen. “Ten years ago, there were no such places in the city,” says Santing. Today, there are nine impact innovation or entrepreneurship hubs. Titaan is one of them: renovated by the municipality and now owned by a private company, it wants to “fuel founders to fix the future”, and aims to become Europe’s number one impact campus. Titaan even boasts its own in-house university where students can start a company from day one, while they get their business degree. Meanwhile, the University of Leiden – the country’s oldest university – recently opened a campus in the Hague. For a city that until recently had no university at all, this is a game-changer, Santing says.

“What is even more important is that they teach entrepreneurship. Traditionally, that’s not been the case,” he adds. ImpactCity has helped to set up these programmes and to connect the various institutions working on this topic.

5. It’s still difficult to change things at the neighbourhood level

There are around 230 Hague-based impact enterprises. In this very international city, plenty of them are tackling problems overseas, particularly in developing countries. But it has been difficult to make the same dent on local issues, Santing says; despite its wealth, the Hague has high levels of inequality in some neighbourhoods. 

“We are struggling to get a programme going which really has a big impact on those neighbourhoods… it’s a puzzle, I think, that we are not able to solve at the moment,” he says.

6. The impact of ImpactCity isn’t clear 

There are success stories – such as the startup that participated in an ImpactCity programme and went on to raise €450,000. But ImpactCity’s overall impact is difficult to ascertain, according to the team.

“It is really difficult. And it’s also about claiming which impact is your impact, because I still think most of the time, it’s the impact of the entrepreneur, and not of ImpactCity,” Santing says. The other challenge is to go beyond simpler metrics like the number of jobs created to understand the true social impact of any intervention: “It’s like the golden egg of this whole [thing].” 

If you see what other cities are doing, it’s fantastic. Everybody has his own special sauce or special thing they can bring to the table

7. The ‘ImpactCity’ brand is protected – but you can probably steal it

The Hague is known as the ‘city of peace and justice’ – home to major global players such as the International Court of Justice plus hundreds of NGOs working towards similar goals. “That gives us credibility to call ourselves ImpactCity,” says Santing. The Hague even protected the ‘ImpactCity’ brand name a decade ago – although he says they’re much less strict about others using the term nowadays. 

“One of my dreams, actually, is that more cities want to be an impact city… We are not in competition, because the problems are so big. If you see what the other cities are doing, it’s fantastic. And everybody has his own special sauce or special thing they can bring to the table.”

Even neighbouring cities aren’t seen as rivals, but rather as sources of inspiration. For example, the Hague’s Social Impact Fund copied a similar idea in Rotterdam. There are practical reasons too: many impact enterprises look to nearby cities when looking to grow their business, something that then benefits both the original city of operation and the new one. “The entrepreneurs maybe also helped us to lower down our competition spirit,” Santing notes. 

8. Telling a good story is still key 

The current ImpactCity strategy was agreed in 2018 and runs until 2030. City-level elections take place in 2026, and the hope is that the new government will continue to support the strategy for its last four years. But Santing recognises the reality of politics: at any time ImpactCity’s role could be up for debate. 

“You should always be able to tell a good story, particularly in today’s political landscape.”

Three more cities investing in an impact economy 

Torino, Italy

Funded by the city’s chamber of commerce, Torino Social Impact was created in 2017, aiming to make the city “one of the best places in the world” for business and finance that pursues economic viability alongside social impact. It has around 15 staff and involves 400 partners – public, private, for-profit and nonprofit entities. Key areas of focus include social procurement, work on a social impact stock exchange, and tech/data for good, according to Jelena Bosnjakovic, who leads on the initiative’s digital strategy. This year, the city approved its first metropolitan plan for the social economy, while Torino Social Impact ran its first major advertising campaign, which showed one eye on economic growth, and one eye on social development (pictured above). 

Malmo, Sweden

Sweden’s third-largest city is developing a new innovation district, aims to have one third of all food consumed in the city also produced and processed there, and is one of the most bike-friendly cities in Europe, according to Kajsa Olsson Skarvad from Malmo’s city government. The creative and diverse city is active in several international networks and partnerships, including one with Japanese cities. “It seems like it’s two opposites in the world, but it’s working really well to come up with new ideas and innovation around sustainability,” says Olsson Skarvad. Malmo is the host of Impact Europe’s Impact Week, which takes place 18-20 November 2025.

Hamburg, Germany

Social Entrepreneurship City Hamburg is working towards “a future where economic production serves the common good”. Its work is driven by Social Enterprise Alliance Hamburg, created in 2023 with a full-time team of six. Areas of focus are visibility, access to finance, training and partnerships. The initiative is fully funded by the municipality. “We are funded now until the end of 2030 so we have quite a privileged and comfortable position here. But of course, the dependency on this sole financing source is still there,” says Boris Kozlowski, director of Social Enterprise Alliance Hamburg.

The Torino, Malmo and Hamburg representatives were speaking at a session on enabling ecosystems at ImpactFest hosted by Euclid Network. Top picture: discussions at ImpactFest 2025 (courtesy of ImpactCity).

Pioneers Post's travel and accomodation costs were covered by ImpactCity.