SOCIAL ENTERPRISE NEWS AND DISCUSSION

The Cabinet Office has launched a £10 million Social Incubator Fund that will give grants to up to 10 intermediary organizations for investments in start-up social enterprises. Intermediaries will apply for grants between £50,000 and £250,000 per year for up to four years to cover operating costs, and grants between £100,000 and £750,000 per year for [...]

The Millennial Generation grew up learning to follow their dreams and never settle for less.  They can be extremely clever and resourceful, and know how to operate any gadget imaginable.  But they can also be a handful for boomer managers, who now learn to deal with this new generation of workers by way of “coaching” [...]

Vodafone Ireland unveiled a new partnership with Young Social Innovators (YSI), investing €400,000 in the first year of a three-year commitment to expand the YSI Social Innovation Programme. The Programme aims to foster the creativity and innovation of young people between the ages of 16-24 and is currently implemented in more than 200 secondary schools across [...]

Ireland’s unemployment rate rose from 4% in the mid-2000s to 14% in 2011.  As the nation continues to deal with its financial crisis, eight finalists have been announced for the 2012 Social Entrepreneurs Ireland Awards to share a €775,000 prize fund.  These eight entrepreneurs lead young social ventures with ideas for major change in Ireland, ranging [...]

The Arthur Guinness Fund was established in 2009 to award Ireland’s social entrepreneurs with funding for their early-stage projects.  This year, ten social entrepreneurs will be sharing the prize, which gives each awardee €50,000 or €100,000 over two years, depending on their stage in development.  The projects are categorized as Start-up (0-2 years) or Take-Off (2-5 [...]

“Clearly I was the only one that thought this was a good idea,” said founder and CEO of Acumen Fund Jacqueline Novogratz on her journey to Africa where she left a promising career to help establish Rwanda’s first microfinance bank. “My boss told me I was making the worst career decision of my life.  My [...]

Applications for grants from West Sussex County Council’s Social Enterprise Fund have opened for this year, with an opportunity for individuals, community or voluntary groups, and social enterprises to bid on more than £250,000 in available funds. West Sussex County Council provides infrastructure support for startup or existing social enterprises that wish to grow.  A social [...]

Big Society Capital (BSC) is a social investment bank in the UK that launched yesterday with a £600m investment fund.  It was established to develop and shape a sustainable social investment market in the UK.  Of the £600m, £400m come from dormant bank accounts of more than 15 years.  The rest come from UK’s four [...]

This article is part of a series on the Skoll World Forum Highlights.  See highlights from Day 1 and Day 2. Closing Plenary In this year’s closing remarks, the discussion surrounds the topic of stories – those that are untold, mistold, or drowned by noise. The audience was shown the preview of a documentary film [...]

This article is part of a series on the Skoll World Forum Highlights.  Morning Plenary Nick Danziger is a photographer, author, and filmmaker.  He guided the attendees on the morning of the second day through a series of photographs he took while traveling along the Silk Road on a Winston Churchill Memorial Travelling Fellowship upon [...]