Deadline: 4-Mar-22
The Rethink Ireland is accepting applications for its Social Enterprise Start-up Fund in partnership with the Department of Rural and Community Development via the Dormant Accounts Fund.
In partnership with the Department of Rural and Community Development via the Dormant Accounts Fund.
Objectives
- The Fund will provide critical support to the most innovative and impactful start-up social enterprises across Ireland, supporting them to:
- Build a plan to grow their social enterprise,
- Map their key stakeholders and customers,
- Create networks within the social enterprise sector,
- Increase their financial sustainability,
- Communicate their vision and mission to a wider audience.
Funding Information
- Cash grants: In 2022, the Fund will support up to 20 social enterprises with cash grants of €10,000 each.
- Business supports: The Accelerator Programme also includes business supports worth €4,500 each, tailored to the needs of each social enterprise, such as strategic planning, business modeling, and communications.
- The Accelerator Programme: All successful applicants will win a place on our National Accelerator Programme specifically designed for social enterprises. The Accelerator Programme is designed to equip social enterprises with the tools and techniques needed to expand their business skills and deepen their impact within their communities.
It provides training from best-in-class experts across the private, non-profit and public sector. Training is provided across a range of functions including business modeling, financial sustainability and vision and mission. By joining the programme, organisations will also gain access to a peer network of the best social enterprises in Ireland.
Eligibility Criteria
They invite applications from social enterprises (projects) that are at an early stage of their development and are looking to fully establish themselves in the market. The following criteria must be met:
- The social enterprise must address a critical social issue
- The social enterprise proposed must be innovative in an Irish context
- The social enterprise must be based on the island of Ireland and must make its main impact in the Republic of Ireland
- The social enterprise must have potential and a desire to scale or replicate in Ireland (it may also have potential internationally, but this is not a requirement)
- The social enterprise has passed the idea stage, i.e. has completed some market research, developed a prototype, made at least one sale, etc.
- Applicants need to be of a not-for-profit nature. Legal forms include e.g. a company limited by guarantee, a co-operative, a trust, and other not for profit legal entities
- If your organization has charitable status then it will meet the above eligibility criteria
- The social enterprise must have created some traded income to date
- The social enterprise must not have created more than €100,000 income in total in 2021.
For more information, visit https://rethinkireland.ie/current_fund/social-enterprise-start-up-fund-2022/