The Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship identifies leading social entrepreneurs in their respective countries and promotes them through the “Social Entrepreneur of the Year Awards.” The Foundation, headquartered in Cologny-Geneva, Switzerland works to to advance social entrepreneurship and to foster social entrepreneurs as an important catalyst for societal innovation and progress.It provides unparalleled platforms at the national, regional and global levels for leading social innovators that highlight social entrepreneurship as a key element to address social and ecological problems in an innovative, sustainable and effective way.
Following are the open competitions where social entrepreneurs from their respective countries can apply:
- Latin America 2012 (Round 1) Applications Close on 30 September 2011
- France 2011 (Round 1) Applications Close on 23 September 2011
- Germany 2011 (Round 1) Applications Close on 23 September 2011
- Central America 2011 (Round 1) Applications Close on 30 September 2011
- Africa 2012 (Round 1) Applications Close on 30 September 2011
- Chile 2011 (Round 1) Applications Close on 30 September 2011
Europe 2012 (Round 1) Applications Close on 31 May 2012
The competitions usually have top 3 most important criteria (in addition to last 2 criteria), unless otherwise specified
- Innovation: The candidate has brought about social change by transforming traditional practice.
- Sustainability: The candidate has generated the social conditions and/or institutions needed to sustain the initiative and is dedicating all of his/her time to it.
- Direct social impact: The candidate has founded, developed and implemented the entrepreneurial initiative directly, together with poor or marginalized beneficiaries and stakeholders. Impact manifests itself in quantifiable results and testimonials and is well documented.
- Reach and Scope: The social entrepreneur’s initiative has spread beyond its initial context and has been adapted successfully to other settings in the country or internationally, either by the entrepreneur him/herself, or through others who have replicated or adapted elements of it.
- Replicability: The initiative can be adapted to other regions of the world to solve similar problems. The entrepreneur is open to sharing with others the tools, approaches and techniques that are critical to the adaptation of the initiative.
For more information about the competitions, visit this link.
