The Santa Clara University’s Center for Science, Technology and Society has opened the application process from 6 December onwards for the Global Social Benefit Incubator (GSBI™) program which gives an opportunity to socially-minded entrepreneurs to build sustainable, scalable organizations that solve problems for people living in poverty around the world.
The Program works with organizations that create value by lifting people out of poverty, utilizing self-sustaining community practices, and developing low-cost solutions. The GSBI is a combination of online, experiential, and skill-building offerings in a ten-month program. It also collaborates with with a diverse group of partners including successful Silicon Valley executives, academic leaders, and the network of Jesuit universities.
The GSBI™ consists of three major components:
- An on-line, mentored, application process hosted on www,socialedge.org and based on three business planning exercises designed to benefit all who participate by defining their organizations’ value proposition, target market (beneficiaries), and “business model” (key income and expense drivers).
- 20 organizations selected from the application process receive scholarships for an online (4 month) and in-residence (2 week) program that involves “action learning” and mentoring to prepare a sustainable “business” plan for their organizations. All expenses (except Internet fees and travel) for this component are covered by a full-scholarship valued at US $25,000,
- On-going mentoring and collaboration for all who complete the in-residence component.
The GSBI™ scholarship covers tuition, room and board for the two-week intensive immersion program and access to the Google Sites used to support the four-month online preparation. Selected candidates are responsible for their travel expenses and arrangements (airfare, ground transportation, passport, and visa).
There are various stages of the application process. The deadline for the first stage of the application process is 6 January 2012. For more information, visit either of these links: Social Edge website or at Santa Clara University website.
