The Sarah Dodds Investment Readiness Challenge 2011 is now open for applications. We welcome submissions from social ventures in London and the South East of England looking to scale their work from proof of concept or initial activity to substantial scale.
The Challenge, configured differently from previous years in format, is maintaining the dual objects of helping social ventures scale while supporting gifted individuals early in their careers to commit to working in the social enterprise sector.
The prize, up to £20,000 in loan finance to the best projects undertaken by the social ventures in conjunction with teams of MBAs from the Saïd Business School, is designed to ensure the winning social ventures successfully and powerfully scale up their activity during 2011 and 2012.
If you think your social venture may want to apply then please read on. And do spread the word. Thanks.
The Investment Readiness Challenge
From The Sarah Dodds Fund
The Sarah Dodds Investment Readiness Challenge will provide financing of up to £20,000 to between one and three social ventures working with Said Business School (SBS) MBA students producing the best investment readiness plan with the aim of financing and then scaling the social venture.
Ventures can apply by addressing the criteria below throughout the summer and autumn of 2011, until the end of October. Ventures will be listed on www.sarahdodds.org as they are received, ready for November when engagement with SBS student teams will commence. Engagement with students will occur throughout the period November 2011 to March 2012. Ventures need to make sure they have the time and resources available to engage with the student teams before they apply.
The Competition
In 2011 The Challenge will take the form of a competition between teams of SBS MBA students who undertake the Entrepreneurship Project[1] (EP), a team based course component of the SBS MBA programme.
Financing will be provided to the social venture that wins The Challenge. The finance will then be used to implement the best investment readiness plan, with the intention of engaging the MBA students beyond the life of the EP to secure investment and scale the enterprise.
MBAs will work in depth with the ventures in the months leading up to the competition deadline and judging, to develop their investment readiness plans, as part of the Entrepreneurship Project course requirement.
Whether they win The Challenge or not ventures engaging with SBS and The Sarah Dodds Fund will benefit through the production of an investment readiness plan, to assist them in securing finance to scale their enterprise.
Criteria
Eligible ventures will:
- Be incorporated to deliver public benefit;
- Have a turnover of at least £250,000;
- Have two years of accounts;
- Be looking to develop a business plan designed to scale organisational activity from proof of concept or initial trading / service delivery to substantial business activity;
- Be able to show evidence of impact;
- Be aspiring to scale exponentially within the next 18 months;
- Be based in London or the South East of England;
- Be able to engage in a time-focused period of eight weeks at the start of 2012 and provide full access to accounts, strategy, staff and stakeholders to participating SBS MBAs;
- Be willing to accept Sarah Dodds Fund cash on a loan basis; and
- Require external investment comprising commercial finance, social finance, grant finance or a combination of these in order to scale.
Submissions from ventures
Submissions are not required in a particular format but must address all of the above points succinctly. Attachments, for instance accounts, will be accepted.
In addition to addressing the above criteria applicants must provide two references, which will be taken up prior to project listing on the website.
All submissions that meet the above criteria will be listed on the Fund website and then scrutinised and selected by SBS student teams when the EP commences in November 2011.
Please submit applications as word documents to mail(at)benmetz(dot)org.
Further information
For periodic updates on The Challenge please visit www.sarahdodds.org.
For specific enquiries please email mail(at)benmetz(dot)org.
[1] The Entrepreneurship Project is a curricular component of the Said Business School MBA. It is required of all students, and in the widest sense, requires students to develop a professional business plan. Students work in groups of five and present their Entrepreneurial Projects to an invited panel of experts and investors.
Sarah Dodds was a social innovator who was passionate about capacity building for early-stage, high potential social enterprises and social businesses. Through her work launching Accenture’s well-known ADP (Accenture Development Partnerships), her work at Crisis and boutique consultancy projects and later her role as Director of Ventures for UnLtd, the UK’s foundation for social entrepreneurs, Sarah identified a crucial gap in the current support mechanisms available to social entrepreneurs. She focused on early-stage enterprises that had achieved some level of “proof of concept” but which were in need of business thinking and operational improvements to create a platform for growth.