Winners of the President’s Challenge Social Enterprise Award, launched in March by Singaporean president Tony Tan Keng Yam in effort to seek out successful and sustainable social enterprises as inspirational role models, were announced.
The awards were given in three categories: Social Enterprise of the Year, Social Enterprise Start-up of the Year, and Youth Social Enterprise of the Year.
According to Channel NewsAsia Singapore, two winners were awarded the Social Enterprise of the Year award, given to social enterprises operating for more than 2 years. They were A-changin and Eighteen Chefs. Each winner receives $15,000 SGD in prize money.
New Soon Huat was named Social Enterprise Start-up of the Year, which is awarded to those operating for less than 2 years, and takes home a $10,000 SGD prize.
The Youth Social Enterprise of the Year is given to social enterprises founded and managed by youths under 35. It was awarded to Adrenalin Events and Education along with a $10,000 SGD prize.
New schemes by the Singaporean government are aimed at supporting social enterprises. For example, the ComCare Enterprise Fund gives grants of up to $300,000 SGD as start-up funding. It focuses specifically on social enterprises that help disadvantaged citizens, such as ex-offenders, people with disabilities, at-risk youth, or people recovering psychiatric illnesses. Similarly, the President’s Challenge searched for social enterprises that served disadvantaged citizens.
Nominees were judged based on five categories: social impact, leadership/governance, business performance and financial viability, innovation and productivity improvement, and work environment.
The winners were chosen from 37 applications.