There are many awards that recognise and reward social enterprises. They provide exposure, support and sometimes funding, knowledge or coaching.
Santander UK has given its Santander Social Enterprise Development Award (SEDA) to over 170 social enterprises across the UK, providing over £4 million in funding and support. Since 1998, the Schwab Foundation has made awards to 260 enterprises, giving them access to networks that are usually out of reach and, as a result, helping them find the resources they need to grow. Since it was founded in Budapest in 1997, NESsT has provided financial support and business mentoring to more than 1,500 social enterprises in over 45 countries. The UK Social Enterprise Awards will be presented for the 16th time in November this year, which means that another 50 social enterprises will be recognised as models worth following.
New awards are appearing in Asia, such as the Social Innovation Award Asia, developed by Social Ventures Hong Kong. They complement established organisations active in the region, such as Ashoka, Acumen Fund and Echoing Green, which offer fellowship programmes to the most promising social enterprises.
Every year, the worldwide pool of good practices grows and inspires other social enterprises and their leaders. The impact of these good practices keeps increasing, and the success stories of new social enterprises offer fresh insight into how people tackle poverty, violence and environmental degradation.
The Social Entrepreneur of the Year Award
The Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship – www.schwabfound.org
TerraCycle (www.terracycle.com) was founded in 2001 by Tom Szaky, a social entrepreneur from Hungary whose family emigrated as political refugees, first to the Netherlands and then to Toronto, Canada. Szaky studied at Princeton University, and TerraCycle was founded in the USA. The company mobilises people to collect previously unrecyclable waste and encourages corporations to sponsor the recycling of these new waste streams. Companies such as Nestlé, Kraft Foods, L’Oréal and PepsiCo take responsibility and pay “brigades” of citizens to collect items such as crisp packets, cigarette butts, mobile phones, pens, coffee capsules and cosmetic packaging, and then pay for the recycling. TerraCycle operates in 22 countries, including the United Kingdom, Sweden and Belgium. By 2013, 32 million consumers had collected 2.5 billion pieces of waste and earned over 5 million US dollars for the schools and non-profits that organised the “brigades”.
In 2013, TerraCycle received the Social Entrepreneur of the Year Award from the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship. The foundation is an independent non-profit organisation that supports social entrepreneurship and highlights the most significant social entrepreneurs. Every year, it selects around twenty of the world’s leading social entrepreneurs from hundreds of applicants. The foundation is under the legal supervision of the Swiss Federal Government.
The Social Enterprise Awards
Social Enterprise UK (SEUK) – www.socialenterprise.org.uk
Divine Chocolate Limited is probably one of very few Fairtrade chocolate companies that is 45% owned by cocoa farmers. United in the Kuapa Kokoo cooperative, the farmers are on a mission to empower themselves, increase women’s participation in all of Kuapa’s activities and develop environmentally friendly cocoa growing.
In the early 1990s, Ghana liberalised its cocoa market. Farmers started to trade their own cocoa, trying to manage sales more efficiently than the government cocoa agents had done.
Divine Chocolate Ltd was created in 1998 in Ghana, and it allowed farmers to aim at the mass market for the first time. It is a private company limited by shares with a very unusual governance structure. Divine is jointly owned by the Fairtrade NGO Twin Trading, the financial institution Oikocredit, the international NGO Christian Aid, the leading UK charity Comic Relief and the Kuapa Kokoo farmers’ cooperative. In 2014, Divine Chocolate Limited won the UK Social Enterprise Awards, presented by Social Enterprise UK in partnership with social enterprise organisations in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Social Enterprise UK is the national body for social enterprises, founded in 2002. It aims to represent its members and help the social enterprise movement grow. The winners of the 16th Social Enterprise Awards will be announced at a ceremony on 26 November 2014.
There are also many other awards in the UK that matter both within and beyond the sector, locally or nationally. To give just a few examples:
The Social Enterprise Competition (umi3.com/social-enterprise/awards), organised by the University of Manchester. One of the winners in 2012 was an innovative social enterprise called UN-Convention (unconventionhub.org). It is a UK-based global music network and development agency that looks for alternative models for the music industry in the age of internet piracy and the sharing economy.
The Deloitte Social Innovation Pioneers programme often supports social enterprises. At the moment there are 12 members of the Pioneers programme, and one of them is Co-wheels from Newcastle (www.co-wheels.org.uk). It is a car club operator that runs a network of community car clubs across the UK. Its 4,500 members use cars on a pay-by-the-hour basis, without the cost and hassle of owning a car.
The programme gives innovative businesses a package of support to help them scale up and become investment-ready. In total, Deloitte invests over £1 million a year in improving the skills and capabilities of the Pioneers.
The Santander Social Enterprise Development Awards (SEDA)
Santander UK – www.santanderseda.co.uk
SEDA was created in 2011 to support social enterprises in local communities all over the UK, both financially and with expertise. So far, it has given over £4 million to more than 170 social businesses.
One of them is Edinburgh Community Food, a social enterprise that provides low-cost healthy eating options and nutrition advice to young people and elderly residents. It won £50,000 to pay for a cold room and a refrigerated van, and it can now expand into the corporate sector.
The NESsT-Citi Social Enterprise Competition
Spolek Přátel (www.pratelefm.org) is a social enterprise from Frýdek-Místek in the Czech Republic. It owns a theatre, sports facilities and other equipment used by local sports teams, theatre groups, families and companies. The enterprise organises activities for the local community, and for young unemployed people in particular.
In 2009, Spolek Přátel won the NESsT-Citi Social Enterprise Competition. At the time, the company was breaking even and trying to increase its budget surplus.
It received a grant of 7,500 US dollars and business consultancy from NESsT, which helped it grow. By 2010, it had achieved its aim of attracting more customers and volunteers, created 8 new sheltered jobs, and was generating 16% of its budget from its own income (case study).
NESsT is a social enterprise catalyst and incubator. It supports early-stage enterprises in emerging markets with investment, capacity building and strategic business mentoring. The NESsT portfolio currently operates in 11 countries across Central and Eastern Europe and Latin America. The NESsT-Citi Social Enterprise Competition is part of NESsT’s mission to develop social enterprises in Central Europe. It is made possible thanks to the support of the Citi Foundation in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia.
The Asia Social Innovation Award
Social Ventures Hong Kong – www.socialinnovationaward.asia
The Asia Social Innovation Award is worth looking at as a point of comparison with the other awards described here, even though it is relatively young and not widely recognised. It is the first Asia-wide annual competition in the social economy. The concept is interesting because of its very pragmatic approach: companies that want to take part have to submit solutions to social problems common in Asian cities, such as an ageing population, poverty and environmental sustainability.
A number of organisations are behind this call for solutions, but the most important one is Social Ventures Hong Kong (SVhk). It is a social enterprise that promotes the model by practising venture philanthropy to support social innovation projects. SVhk also plans to promote social entrepreneurship through training, consultancy and events. Happy Grannies (www.happygrannies.org.hk) won the 2008 SVhk Social Innovation Award. The company tackles the problems of an ageing society and of the more than 100,000 elderly people living alone in Hong Kong, an estimated 30% of whom suffer from depression. It offers sponsorship packages and care programmes. Another Asian award in the social economy sector is the Hong Kong Social Enterprise Challenge, an inter-collegiate social venture competition in Hong Kong (hksec.hk).
It is impossible to describe all the competitions and awards for the social economy, but here are a few more noteworthy examples. In Poland, the Foundation for Social and Economic Initiatives has been organising the Best Social Enterprise of the Year competition (konkurs-es.pl) for the last 3 years. Every year, the Skoll Foundation presents the Skoll Awards for Social Entrepreneurship to a select group of social entrepreneurs whose work has had an impact on some of the world’s most urgent problems, such as deforestation, education and economic opportunity, effective development, water and sanitation, or peace and human security (skollfoundation.org). The European Network of Foundations for Social Economy (PEFONDES) has held two editions (2011 and 2013) of its European Prize “For Youth Employment in the Social Economy”. Its main aim is to encourage innovative solutions to youth unemployment across the Euro-Mediterranean region. In the first edition, the prize of 8,000 euros went to the Belgian cooperative project PLOTform, an online tool that offers an innovative, fun, direct and transparent way of fundraising (plotform.eu).
Paulina Wajszczak for socialeconomy.pl
There are many awards that recognise and reward social enterprises. They provide exposure, support and sometimes funding, knowledge or coaching.
Santander UK has given its Santander Social Enterprise Development Award (SEDA) to over 170 social enterprises across the UK, providing over £4 million in funding and support. Since 1998, the Schwab Foundation has made awards to 260 enterprises, giving them access to networks that are usually out of reach and, as a result, helping them find the resources they need to grow. Since it was founded in Budapest in 1997, NESsT has provided financial support and business mentoring to more than 1,500 social enterprises in over 45 countries. The UK Social Enterprise Awards will be presented for the 16th time in November this year, which means that another 50 social enterprises will be recognised as models worth following.
New awards are appearing in Asia, such as the Social Innovation Award Asia, developed by Social Ventures Hong Kong. They complement established organisations active in the region, such as Ashoka, Acumen Fund and Echoing Green, which offer fellowship programmes to the most promising social enterprises.
Every year, the worldwide pool of good practices grows and inspires other social enterprises and their leaders. The impact of these good practices keeps increasing, and the success stories of new social enterprises offer fresh insight into how people tackle poverty, violence and environmental degradation.
The Social Entrepreneur of the Year Award
The Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship – www.schwabfound.org
TerraCycle (www.terracycle.com) was founded in 2001 by Tom Szaky, a social entrepreneur from Hungary whose family emigrated as political refugees, first to the Netherlands and then to Toronto, Canada. Szaky studied at Princeton University, and TerraCycle was founded in the USA. The company mobilises people to collect previously unrecyclable waste and encourages corporations to sponsor the recycling of these new waste streams. Companies such as Nestlé, Kraft Foods, L’Oréal and PepsiCo take responsibility and pay “brigades” of citizens to collect items such as crisp packets, cigarette butts, mobile phones, pens, coffee capsules and cosmetic packaging, and then pay for the recycling. TerraCycle operates in 22 countries, including the United Kingdom, Sweden and Belgium. By 2013, 32 million consumers had collected 2.5 billion pieces of waste and earned over 5 million US dollars for the schools and non-profits that organised the “brigades”.
In 2013, TerraCycle received the Social Entrepreneur of the Year Award from the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship. The foundation is an independent non-profit organisation that supports social entrepreneurship and highlights the most significant social entrepreneurs. Every year, it selects around twenty of the world’s leading social entrepreneurs from hundreds of applicants. The foundation is under the legal supervision of the Swiss Federal Government.
The Social Enterprise Awards
Social Enterprise UK (SEUK) – www.socialenterprise.org.uk
Divine Chocolate Limited is probably one of very few Fairtrade chocolate companies that is 45% owned by cocoa farmers. United in the Kuapa Kokoo cooperative, the farmers are on a mission to empower themselves, increase women’s participation in all of Kuapa’s activities and develop environmentally friendly cocoa growing.
In the early 1990s, Ghana liberalised its cocoa market. Farmers started to trade their own cocoa, trying to manage sales more efficiently than the government cocoa agents had done.
Divine Chocolate Ltd was created in 1998 in Ghana, and it allowed farmers to aim at the mass market for the first time. It is a private company limited by shares with a very unusual governance structure. Divine is jointly owned by the Fairtrade NGO Twin Trading, the financial institution Oikocredit, the international NGO Christian Aid, the leading UK charity Comic Relief and the Kuapa Kokoo farmers’ cooperative. In 2014, Divine Chocolate Limited won the UK Social Enterprise Awards, presented by Social Enterprise UK in partnership with social enterprise organisations in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Social Enterprise UK is the national body for social enterprises, founded in 2002. It aims to represent its members and help the social enterprise movement grow. The winners of the 16th Social Enterprise Awards will be announced at a ceremony on 26 November 2014.
There are also many other awards in the UK that matter both within and beyond the sector, locally or nationally. To give just a few examples:
The Social Enterprise Competition (umi3.com/social-enterprise/awards), organised by the University of Manchester. One of the winners in 2012 was an innovative social enterprise called UN-Convention (unconventionhub.org). It is a UK-based global music network and development agency that looks for alternative models for the music industry in the age of internet piracy and the sharing economy.
The Deloitte Social Innovation Pioneers programme often supports social enterprises. At the moment there are 12 members of the Pioneers programme, and one of them is Co-wheels from Newcastle (www.co-wheels.org.uk). It is a car club operator that runs a network of community car clubs across the UK. Its 4,500 members use cars on a pay-by-the-hour basis, without the cost and hassle of owning a car.
The programme gives innovative businesses a package of support to help them scale up and become investment-ready. In total, Deloitte invests over £1 million a year in improving the skills and capabilities of the Pioneers.
The Santander Social Enterprise Development Awards (SEDA)
Santander UK – www.santanderseda.co.uk
SEDA was created in 2011 to support social enterprises in local communities all over the UK, both financially and with expertise. So far, it has given over £4 million to more than 170 social businesses.
One of them is Edinburgh Community Food, a social enterprise that provides low-cost healthy eating options and nutrition advice to young people and elderly residents. It won £50,000 to pay for a cold room and a refrigerated van, and it can now expand into the corporate sector.
The NESsT-Citi Social Enterprise Competition
Spolek Přátel (www.pratelefm.org) is a social enterprise from Frýdek-Místek in the Czech Republic. It owns a theatre, sports facilities and other equipment used by local sports teams, theatre groups, families and companies. The enterprise organises activities for the local community, and for young unemployed people in particular.
In 2009, Spolek Přátel won the NESsT-Citi Social Enterprise Competition. At the time, the company was breaking even and trying to increase its budget surplus.
It received a grant of 7,500 US dollars and business consultancy from NESsT, which helped it grow. By 2010, it had achieved its aim of attracting more customers and volunteers, created 8 new sheltered jobs, and was generating 16% of its budget from its own income (case study).
NESsT is a social enterprise catalyst and incubator. It supports early-stage enterprises in emerging markets with investment, capacity building and strategic business mentoring. The NESsT portfolio currently operates in 11 countries across Central and Eastern Europe and Latin America. The NESsT-Citi Social Enterprise Competition is part of NESsT’s mission to develop social enterprises in Central Europe. It is made possible thanks to the support of the Citi Foundation in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia.
The Asia Social Innovation Award
Social Ventures Hong Kong – www.socialinnovationaward.asia
The Asia Social Innovation Award is worth looking at as a point of comparison with the other awards described here, even though it is relatively young and not widely recognised. It is the first Asia-wide annual competition in the social economy. The concept is interesting because of its very pragmatic approach: companies that want to take part have to submit solutions to social problems common in Asian cities, such as an ageing population, poverty and environmental sustainability.
A number of organisations are behind this call for solutions, but the most important one is Social Ventures Hong Kong (SVhk). It is a social enterprise that promotes the model by practising venture philanthropy to support social innovation projects. SVhk also plans to promote social entrepreneurship through training, consultancy and events. Happy Grannies (www.happygrannies.org.hk) won the 2008 SVhk Social Innovation Award. The company tackles the problems of an ageing society and of the more than 100,000 elderly people living alone in Hong Kong, an estimated 30% of whom suffer from depression. It offers sponsorship packages and care programmes. Another Asian award in the social economy sector is the Hong Kong Social Enterprise Challenge, an inter-collegiate social venture competition in Hong Kong (hksec.hk).
It is impossible to describe all the competitions and awards for the social economy, but here are a few more noteworthy examples. In Poland, the Foundation for Social and Economic Initiatives has been organising the Best Social Enterprise of the Year competition (konkurs-es.pl) for the last 3 years. Every year, the Skoll Foundation presents the Skoll Awards for Social Entrepreneurship to a select group of social entrepreneurs whose work has had an impact on some of the world’s most urgent problems, such as deforestation, education and economic opportunity, effective development, water and sanitation, or peace and human security (skollfoundation.org). The European Network of Foundations for Social Economy (PEFONDES) has held two editions (2011 and 2013) of its European Prize “For Youth Employment in the Social Economy”. Its main aim is to encourage innovative solutions to youth unemployment across the Euro-Mediterranean region. In the first edition, the prize of 8,000 euros went to the Belgian cooperative project PLOTform, an online tool that offers an innovative, fun, direct and transparent way of fundraising (plotform.eu).
Paulina Wajszczak for socialeconomy.pl