Santander's Social Enterprise Development Awards open on 3 June with an increased number of prizes available this year for social enterprises seeking a financial boost to help them expand.
The scheme offers established social enterprises the opportunity to win funding and business support to help them grow and increase their social impact. The awards feature three prize funds - £50,000, £20,000 and £10,000 – dependent on turnover, for organisations working to improve social inclusion, support employment or create a greener environment. Following the success of last year's programme the number of awards has been increased to enable a greater number of smaller social enterprises to be supported in 2013.
To enter the competition, social enterprises complete a short entry form downloadable from www.santanderseda.co.uk detailing how an award would be used to grow their business to benefit the community. The deadline for entries is the 1 July 2013 and the winners will be announced in September 2013.
Steve Pateman, head of UK banking, Santander, said: "Social enterprises play a vital role in local communities and the Santander Social Enterprise Development Awards were set up to help these dynamic businesses increase the impact they have. We are committed to supporting the small business sector and we're looking forward to supporting even more social enterprises through the awards this year."
The prize fund of £2.3m is split equally across eight regions – London & South East, South West, Midlands, North West, North East, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland. In each region there will be seven awards for the £10,000 prize, eight for the £20,000 and one for the £50,000 award, providing £280,000 of support in each region.
Alongside the prize money, winning social enterprises receive a business support package from Santander including fully funded internships, business webinar presentations, consultancy days and the opportunity to network with other enterprises and small businesses. Community Foundations UK are administering the awards and helping the winning social enterprises to measure their social impact.
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