Launches Women in Social Enterprise (WISE) Award

Private equity professionals, firms, and their advisors in Latin America and in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) continue to show their commitment to partnering with NESsT through joint efforts at key events on both ends of the world, and this year was no exception.

NESsT teamed up with both the Hungarian Venture Capital Association (HVCA) and the Latin American Venture Capital Association (LAVCA) in their most important regional events of the year held in Budapest, Hungary, and Santiago, Chile, respectively. At each of these events, NESsT was invited to host a Social Marketplace to showcase its portfolio of social enterprises, and to recognize some of these enterprises for their excellent performance.

The events provided the perfect stage for the launch of NESsT’s newest award: the Women in Social Enterprise (WISE) award, recognizing exceptional women leaders in social enterprise. Established in memory of long-time NESsT friend, supporter, and former Board member, Jean Waggett, the WISE award was launched to encourage and honor excellent women leaders in the field of social enterprise, as well as social enterprises that create economic opportunities and improve the quality of life for women from marginalized communities.

The award recognizes individuals and organizations that demonstrate exceptional leadership and a particularly effective or unique approach to creating opportunities for women.

“Although we are deeply saddened by Jean’s passing, we hope that the WISE Award will be one small way that NESsT can recognize and celebrate, in an ongoing way, an incredible woman, role model, and friend,” said Nicole Etchart, NESsT’s CEO and co-founder.”The recipient of the WISE Award serves as a model of best practice to practitioners, investors, philanthropists, and donors and, in particular, to inspire young women leaders,” she added.

Made possible thanks to the generous support of Marisa Drew, managing director in the Investment Banking Division of Credit Suisse and member of the NESsT UK Board of Directors, the WISE award provides its winners with a financial contribution to be used for further development of their social enterprise.

At the HVCA CEE Corporate Finance and Private Equity Conference 2010 in Budapest, the first WISE award was presented to the Croatian organization RODA for its social enterprise that produces attractive, easy-to-use cloth diapers delivering health-related and environmental and social value through an eco-friendly, affordable and high quality alternative to disposable diapers. Revenues generated go toward supporting Roda´s educational workshops and materials for parents and pregnant women as well as its home-nursing help line. The award was given to RODA for its work to bring about change in Croatian maternal care and to engender increased parental involvement in children’s lives.

The HVCA conference was also the perfect opportunity for NESsT to present its 2009 NESsT-Citi Social Enterprise Competition awards and to showcase its Social Marketplace, which gathered the social enterprises of the NESsT portfolio in Central Europe. The marketplace featured a total of 22 social enterprises from Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, and Slovakia. They exhibited their products, presented their services, and had an opportunity to share their missions and activities with a different type of audience.

A second WISE award was also presented in Latin America at the LAVCA Chile Private Equity and Venture Capital Forum 2010, to Fundación Templanza, an organization dedicated to improving the lives of Chilean women, particularly those who are victims of domestic violence. The award recognizes Templanza’s exceptional social enterprise aimed at providing very high quality psychological support services to these victims, through a differentiated fee scale. Templanza is exiting the Chilean portfolio this year as it has reached full sustainability, currently reaching over 300 patients a month.

Similar to HVCA, LAVCA provided a perfect forum for NESsT to feature a social marketplace consisting of 10 organizations from the NESsT Venture Fund portfolio in Chile. NESsT also highlighted the work of its Levantando Chile Fund, set up to assist communities in the aftermath of the Chilean earthquake. It presented two portfolio organizations – Relmu Witral and Trabajo Para un Hermano-Concepción – an award of US$ 25,000 each to be used in their efforts to helping local producers, artisans and micro-entrepreneurs to recover and improve their livelihoods.

“NESsT’s participation in our first event in Chile gives us great satisfaction. Private equity has grown significantly in Latin America and Chile over the past few years, and NESsT’s focus on engaged philanthropy is a smart way to invest in long-term development of the region’s social sector,” commented Cate Ambrose, director of LAVCA.