Skoll Awards for Social Entrepreneurship

Posted by on April 11, 2011

Skoll Foundation Accepting Applications for the Skoll Awards for Social Entrepreneurship
Deadline: April 27, 2011

The Palo Alto, California-based Skoll Foundation is accepting applications for its 2012 social entrepreneurship awards. The annual awards provide unrestricted funding to further extend the reach of social entrepreneurs who have achieved significant impact in the areas of tolerance and human rights, health, environmental sustainability, peace and security, and economic and social equity.

The Skoll Award includes a core support grant to the winner’s organization to be paid over three years and a non-cash award to the social entrepreneur that will be presented at the Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship (March 2012 in Oxford, England). The foundation anticipates making fewer than ten awards each year.

To be considered for the award, social entrepreneurs must have a tested and proven social innovation that addresses an issue of critical importance and is positioned for large-scale impact.

Qualifying organizations will be evaluated against the following criteria: Impact potential — organization’s innovation is positioned to directly affect policy, behavior, and/or infrastructure/system(s) on a large scale and can show evidence of significant impact already achieved; Inflection — organization has a proven approach that has already been implemented with success and is now ready to apply the approach on a much larger scale; Innovation — organization has an approach that fundamentally disrupts the status quo to solve social and/or environmental problems; Issue — organization works on an issue that is identified by the Skoll Foundation as one of world’s most pressing problems; Skoll leverage — organization will benefit from engaging with Skoll Foundation beyond a purely funding relationship, such as collaboration with our network of entrepreneurs or access to media opportunities; Social entrepreneur — organization is led by a visionary social entrepreneur; and Sustainability — organization has a clear, compelling plan for expanding impact and achieving long-term financial and operational sustainability.

While the awards program does not have an absolute budget threshold for eligibility, organizations with annual revenues below $2.5 million and that work primarily in developed countries, as well as organizations with revenues below $1 million that work primarily in developing countries, tend to be at a disadvantage in the selection process, which prioritizes organizations based on readiness to expand impact significantly and/or scale up solutions and favors organizations within these budget thresholds.

To receive a Skoll Award, an organization must be a legally incorporated entity. Organizations that do not have 501(c)(3) public charity status, including organizations based in other countries, will be asked to submit additional documentation at the appropriate time.

Applications are accepted from around the world but all application materials must be submitted in English.

Interested organizations must take and pass an online eligibility quiz before being granted access to the online application form. Visit the Skoll Foundation Web site for complete program guidelines, the eligibility quiz, and an FAQ.

http://www.skollfoundation.org/about/skoll-awards