Skoll Awards for Social Entrepreneurship - Apply Now!

The Skoll Awards for Social Entrepreneurship are worth considering, if only to gage the state of social enterprise around the world.

A bit about the awards:

The Skoll Awards for Social Entrepreneurship support social entrepreneurs whose work has the potential for large-scale influence on critical challenges of our time: environmental sustainability, health, tolerance and human rights, institutional responsibility, economic and social equity, and peace and security. These issues are at the heart of the foundation’s vision of empowering people to create a peaceful, prosperous, sustainable world. Skoll social entrepreneurs are innovators who have tested and proved their approach, are poised to replicate or scale up their work to create equilibrium change and engage others with a message that resonates with individuals whose resources are crucial to advancing these solutions. The Skoll Awards are designed for leaders who contribute value to a peer network committed to continuous learning. By telling their stories, they join in the foundation’s ongoing celebration of the power of social entrepreneurs.

The Skoll Awards provide later-stage, or mezzanine, funding, which is generally structured as a $1 million award paid out over three years, subject to payment limitations described below under Budget Guidance. In most cases, the grant is provided for core support to help organizations expand their programs and capacity to deliver long-term, sustainable equilibrium change. The Skoll Awards are not intended for new or early-stage programs or initiatives. Programs submitted for consideration should have a track record of no less than three years. In addition to core support, the Skoll Foundation supports the participation of Award recipients in the annual Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship.

Interested? Here are the eligibility criteria:

• Be led by a social entrepreneur.


• Have implemented innovative programs that demonstrate effective approaches to critical social and environmental challenges with global implications.
• Organizations developing local or regional models for replication on a national or international scale should show that the location where the model is being tested is central to the issue in question. Examples are peace and security initiatives in conflict regions, biodiversity solutions in species-rich “hot spots,” educational opportunities in inner cities and disease treatments at the source of potential epidemics.


• Be able to describe a clear, long-term path to creating an equilibrium change.


• Demonstrate proof of concept with measurable outcomes.


• Have a clear, compelling plan for reaching scale.


• Demonstrate a track record of at least three years.


• Have a clear plan for long-term financial and operational sustainability.


• Commit to working with peers and the Skoll Foundation to share learning and communicate success strategies.

A list of exclusions can be found here.

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Interested in learning more about social enterprise? Take a browse through the Vancouver Social Enterprise Book Store (Vancouver | United Kingdom | United States) and see what other social entrepreneurs recommend reading.

Tags for information about: for:vsef, Social Economy, Social_Entrepreneur, Skoll

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VanCity Award Announced

Earlier we mentioned the VanCity Award.

Well, today's the day. The VanCity Award has been announced.

And the award goes to ...

Well, before that ... a note of congratulations to the VanCity members. The VanCity Award is selected on the basis of the VanCity membership voting to support a shortlist of candidate organisations. By way of reminder the shortlisted organisations were:

AIDS Vancouver Island and Cool Aid Society

Atira Women’s Resource Society

Crisis Centre

Quest Outreach Society

Given VanCity is a cooperative, that's a solid illustration of returning value back to the community.

So .. about that winner ...

Quest Outreach Society was selected.

You can read the VanCity press release, BC’s only food exchange program gets $1-million grant from credit union, for yourself. But here's a snippet:

A program that rescues high-quality food, keeping it out of landfills and redistributing it to non-profit agencies that feed hungry people across the Lower Mainland, has won a $1-million award from Vancity.

This year's $1-million Vancity Award goes to Quest Outreach Society for the expansion of BC's only food exchange program.

Last year, Quest Food Exchange diverted 6.6 million pounds of surplus high-quality food from Lower Mainland landfills, which added up to $7 million worth of food. Each day the organization fills, then empties, its Vancouver warehouse providing food to more than a hundred social service agencies feeding more than 45,000 people a month.

With the help of the Vancity Award, Quest will purchase a warehouse that will enable them to triple their capacity over two years. A larger space will mean the potential to rescue nearly 20 million pounds of high-quality food each year and redistribute it to nearly 150,000 people in the Lower Mainland each month.

"Quest would like to thank Vancity and its members for voting for us," says Shelley Wells, executive director of Quest. "As a result of campaigning, we have gained new food suppliers, new social service agency partners, new volunteers and now the funding for a new facility. With these new partnerships and the continued support of our donors, we can more strongly address the Lower Mainland's food distribution problem and connect high-quality, healthy food with those who need it most."

The $1-million Vancity Award, the largest corporate gift of its kind in Canada, was established in 2001 by Vancity's Board of Directors to support the social, environmental and economic well-being of the community by funding a project that would make a major, long-lasting impact on people's lives.

[...]

"These were all great projects and it would have been our privilege to support any of them, but in the end it was our members who decided the project that most resonated with them," says Elain Duvall, chair of Vancity's Board of Directors. "Quest's Food Exchange program fits both Vancity's environmental and social objectives. We think the idea of keeping good food out of landfills and into hungry bellies is inspirational."

[...]

Quest partners with non-profit organizations in Lower Mainland communities, including Vancouver; Burnaby; New Westminster, North Vancouver, Richmond, Surrey, Tri-Cities and Maple Ridge.

Before I forget ... VanCity is accepting applications for next year, until December 23, 2006.

Here's how the CBC covered the award.
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Tags for information about: for:vsef, VanCity, Nonprofit

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VanCity Award | The Market

An earlier post mentioned the VanCity Award and the call for members to vote and support one of four organizations short-listed for the million dollar award.

Again, the final four are:

AIDS Vancouver Island and Cool Aid Society

Atira Women’s Resource Society

Crisis Centre

Quest Outreach Society

Using the services of CrowdIQ we're experimenting. Our experiment is the VanCity Award Market.

We'd be tickled pink if you'd ...

Take the time to learn about the final four candidates for the VanCity Award

Start working on your application for the 2007 VanCity Award.

Encourage all your friends, who are VanCity members, to vote.

Share the news about our VCAM experiment.

Trade the VanCity Award Market, VCAM

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Tags for information about: for:vsef, VanCity

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VanCity Award | Voting Underway

If you're a member of the VanCity Credit Union, you can help decide the 2006 recipient of the $1,000,000.00 VanCity Award.

Eligible VanCity members can vote either online, in branch or by calling 604-877-7000 or 1-888-Vancity. Voting ends on Friday, October 13. You can only vote once.

VanCity has a comprehensive set of criteria for submissions to be considered for the VanCity Award.

To qualify for the Vancity Award, your project should:

be bold, innovative and exciting

be self-sustaining in the long term

use a single gift of $1 million

create a lasting legacy in our community

support the social, economic or environmental well-being of the community in which our members live and work

Your project may also:

be developmental in nature, taking up to five years to complete involve partnerships with other organizations

be a combination of operating, capital and endowment spending
Application process

The Vancity Award involves a two-stage process:

Stage one: a letter of intent to determine basic suitability

Stage two: a formal proposal for final evaluation

VanCity members have four organizations to consider. They are:

AIDS Vancouver Island and Cool Aid Society

Atira Women’s Resource Society

Crisis Centre

Quest Outreach Society

Remember ... voting is open until Friday, October 13, 2006. The results will be announced Thursday, November 23, 2006.

If you're interested in some of the other submissions ... take a look here.
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Tags for information about: for:vsef, Social Economy, Nonprofit, VanCity

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VanCity Award Finalists

Between September 6th and October 15th, members of the VanCity Credit Union are invited to vote for the 2004 recipient of the $1,000,000 VanCity Award. Members will receive ballots with their account statements, or can visit VanCity Award.

The VanCity Award is an annual grant to a local non-profit organization that allows VanCity to make significant impact in the community. Since 2001, members have had the opportunity to express their sentiments.

The candidate organizations this year are:

PLEA - Pacific Legal Education Association

Phoenix Drug and Alcohol Recovery and Education Society

Queen Alexandra Foundation for Children

Interestingly ... all the proposed non-profits will use the funds for building.