Social Enterprise Series – win $10k

Co-Lab, ACU’s business incubator, is delighted to announce the 2022 Social Enterprise Series and the opportunity for participants to win a $10,000 prize.

The Social Enterprise Series is designed for people and businesses who want to provide innovative solutions to contemporary social problems. In this way, the series brings ACU’s mission firmly into the public domain, in service to the common good.

The Social Enterprise Series

The Social Enterprise Series is a free, online and in-depth 10-week program designed to educate future global change-makers on the practicalities and principles of establishing or growing a thriving social enterprise.

Industry experts will walk attendees through the key components of building an enterprise that can have positive social impact, and attendees will be encouraged to put their newly learned skills to work by crafting a video pitch for the chance to win the inaugural Social Enterprise Award, which offers $10,000 to kickstart their project.

The series will be delivered by StartSomeGood, who are sector-leaders in social enterprise education, innovative partnerships and cause-driven crowdfunding. They were also one of the founding members of Co-Lab (formally Collaborate Plus).

The series will run every Wednesday between 4pm–6pm AEST and will commence on 13 April. We encourage you to share these details with colleagues, with networks and with students.

The workshops are open to everyone.

Workshop topics include:

• The change you seek
• Understanding the issues
• Ideation for impact
• Designing your business
• Building your tribe
• Pitching
• Show me the money
• Legal ramification for social entrepreneurs
• Crowd funding for social enterprises and impact projects
• The road is long

Social Enterprise Award – $10k cash prize

The Social Enterprise Award recognises an individual or team who have developed a novel social enterprise idea and are at any stage of development, from initial idea to market ready. Your idea may be for a business that sells a physical product or offers a service.

Entrants must attend three or more Social Enterprise Series workshops to be eligible to lodge a pitch entry into the Social Enterprise Award.

The winning video pitch entry receives:

• $10,000 prize money
• six months of mentoring by a member of ACU’s executive staff (five one-hour sessions)
• access to ACU student groups for project support
• promotion of their winning business/project through the ACU Co-Lab community ecosystem.

An additional ACU student prize of $1,000 will be awarded to the best student entry that does not win the grand prize.

Entry for the award closes on Sunday 3 July 2022.

We encourage all student-facing staff to share details of the award with their students. If you would like any further information or would like a member of Co-Lab to present this opportunity to your students, please contact Ms Tayana Grundy, tayana.grundy@acu.edu.au.

Find out more about the Social Enterprise Series and Award