NESsT Social Enterprise Competition 2007:

Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia

NESsT and Citi are pleased to announce the “2007 NESsT Social Enterprise Competition” with the aim of supporting the development of social enterprises in Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia.

We are inviting the participation of all civil society organizations (CSOs) in Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia that are interested in assessing the viability of launching or expanding social enterprises activities (including any CSO who already has a business plan or a functioning social enterprise).

The 2007 NESsT Social Enterprise Competition is a part of NESsT’s ongoing process to develop social enterprises in Central Europe and is made possible thanks to the generous support of the Citigroup Foundation and the voluntary support of Citi employees in Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia.

1. Social Enterprise Definition

For the purpose of the competition, NESsT defines social enterprise as those self-financing strategies of CSOs that:  

• are designed to sell a product or service in a systematic, responsible and professional manner
• require previous evaluation and planning
• are geared towards generating sustainable income that help to further the CSO’s mission.  

2. Competition Process

In the document titled “NESsT Venture Fund (NVF)” you will find more information about the NVF process and selection criteria. Selected CSOs will, with the cooperation and assistance of the NESsT Team, work their way through a process in which their performance will be assessed at each stage to determine if they can advance to the next stage.

The main stages of the NVF process are:

Stage 1: Organizational Readiness for the self-financing activity and a pre-feasibility study of one or two ideas initially proposed  

Stage 2: Feasibility study of the social enterprise idea (or of the expansion of an already existing social enterprise) 

Stage 3: Elaboration of a Business Plan for the implementation/ expansion of the social enterprise

CSOs that already have a social enterprise business plan or are already operating a social enterprise are encouraged to apply but will be evaluated on a case by case basis against competition criteria in order to determine in which stage of the process they belong.

3. Competition Awards

NESsT and Citigroup Foundation will present three final awards (one each for Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia) to recognize the best completed business plan from each country. Each award recipient will receive a package of resources to assist with launching their respective social enterprise activities, including a US$10,000 grant and on-going consulting support from NESsT.

4. Competition Applications

Those CSOs interested in the competition should complete the Application Form and send it to NESsT via e-mail. We will then contact directly the organizations short-listed on the basis of their Applications. We will then set up meetings in order to gather additional information and get to know their team and proposals in more detail. With this information, NESsT together with local business advisors and employees of Citigroup in Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia, will decide which organizations will be invited to continue in the process and to participate in the launch workshop scheduled to take place in April.

Applications should be sent to iszolga@nesst.org.

The application deadline for Slovakia (only) has been extended to Friday, 29 June 2007. For more information, click here.

The application deadline for Czech Republic and Hungary is CLOSED.

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