Who we support: 

The Awards Programme seeks to support social entrepreneurs who have an innovative solution to a societal challenge, who have a project/organisation that is up and running with evidence of activities undertaken and who aim to significantly scale and grow the impact of what they are doing.

What that means in more detail: 

We’re looking to support social entrepreneurs…

The social entrepreneurs we’re looking for should be the main driver of the project/organisation with the ability to make top level, direction shifting decisions. They should act in an entrepreneurial manner, and be open to learning and developing themselves through our Awards Programme. 

We’re looking for an innovative solution…

The people we support have an innovative approach to societal change. They don’t replicate what is already provided but seek to provide new solutions and different ways of tackling existing problems. The innovative solution should have a demonstrable impact on the societal challenge. 

A societal challenge…

There are many problems and issues to be addressed in Ireland. We’re looking for social entrepreneurs who can demonstrate clearly why the issue they are addressing is of particular importance. 

A project/organisation up and running…

While we love hearing about new ideas for social change, for our Awards Programme we’re looking for people who have moved beyond thinking about the solution and are actively out there making it happen. They should be able to point to some activities that they have already undertaken, and show the impact that they have had already. 

Scale and grow their social impact…

We like our social entrepreneurs to think big. We’re looking for projects/organisations that have the potential to (someday) change the way the issue they are addressing is dealt with in Ireland. This capacity to scale is a vital aspect of our evaluation process.

Scaling impact can be achieved in various ways, for example scaling the reach of the organisation (geographic, demographic etc.), scaling breadth or depth, or providing a model that can be replicated. 

 You can read a full overview of the eligibility criteria here.