NESsT and Citi announce NGO social enterprise competition winners at Hungarian Venture Capital Association (HVCA) conference 

NESsT and Citi announced the winners of the 2009 NESsT-Citi Social Enterprise Competition on the 22nd of April, 2010 to promote excellence in social enterprise development among local nonprofits in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia. The awards were given at the Hungarian Venture Capital Association (HVCA) annual conference gathering leaders of the private equity industry in Central Europe.

The awards from NESsT and Citi reward excellence in designing, planning and developing sustainable social enterprises with a double, and often triple bottom line: financial, social and environmental.

Winners included organizations from Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, addressing a wide range of social issues from learning disabilities to training and development, eco-education and the arts, and issues about health and wellness, among others.

The 2009 NESsT-Citi Social Enterprise Competition is a part of NESsT mission in the past ten years to develop social enterprises in Central Europe and it has been implemented with a grant from the Citi Foundation and with professional support of Citi employee volunteers in Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

Eva Varga, NESsT Enterprise Development Director for Europe, and Batara Sianturi, Citi Country Officer for Hungary, presented the winners with their awards at the annual HVCA conference.

A total of 40 organizations have applied to be included in this program and 25 have been selected to participate in the training and one-on-one mentoring from NESsT and finally presented their business plans. The NESsT team was joined by Citi volunteer employees and other local business advisors to assess social enterprise ideas and provide consulting as CSOs moved through the different stages of the development process.

First place for the strongest social enterprise business plan in Hungary was awarded in the amount of US $10,000 to Csoport-teka Association of Budapest for a high-impact, replicable employment services model that has proven to be successful and efficient for beneficiaries with often multiple disadvantages on the labor market. The award will help implement the social enterprise, namely the accreditation and promotion of the organization's trainings and services.

Vadvirag Foundation of Kaposvár from Hungary was awarded runner-up and will receive US $8,000.

Best Social Enterprise Business Plan 2009 in Slovakia went to WellGiving Association of Lozorno. Its business idea, running an e-shop (CharityShop.sk) to promote products and services of sheltered workshops, NGOs and female entrepreneurs, showed both high social and financial potential. It contributes to the development of social enterprises and civil sector sustainability in Slovakia and has a professional and dedicated team behind it. The award carries a US $10,000 investment into the implementation of the social enterprise, namely into the promotional and marketing activities of CharityShop.

Runner-up prize went to Jablonka Association of Jablonove for its business, which sells native tree and permaculture garden design as well as eco-education that can help reinforce ecological and sustainable gardening and fruit production in Slovakia.

As previously announced in Prague, earlier this year two awards were handed out in the Czech Republic. Pohoda Association (Prague) received first prize for the Best Social Enterprise Business Plan 2009. The organization won for its plan to develop a social enterprise that offers high-quality training to social workers, government officials and families of people with mental disabilities with the aim to improve interaction, communication, and ultimately integration of disabled people in society.

At the same time, Letohradek Vendula (Horní Bezdekov) received the second prize award for outstanding performance in developing a social enterprise running a physiotherapy center for people with physical disabilities and for the wider public.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

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"We've been delighted to have had the competition in these three countries representative of Central Europe allowing us to provide long-term support to contribute to the development of social enterprises in this region," said Eva Varga, Enterprise Development Director for NESsT Europe. "The support from NESsT will enable the winning organizations to extend social benefits to communities in need across Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, and meanwhile to strengthen their financial sustainability. We congratulate them all for their great business plans."

 

"The support we've received from NESsT and Citi was the right help, coming at the right time. Going through the program helped us a lot in developing our ideas into a social enterprise, implementing new systems and structures for our services, and realigning our entire organization to best incorporate the social enterprise. The inspiration, new perspectives, ongoing guidance and regular feedback meant the most to us, and meantime we enjoyed working with an organization that represents the same values as we do," said Timea Sofalvi of Csoport-teka Association, the competition's first place winner from Hungary.

For the press release of the Social Enterprise Award Ceremony, click here.

 

NESsT Social Enterprise Marketplace

The Award Ceremony of the 2009 NESsT-Citi Social Enterprise Competitions was the culmination of the NESsT Social Enterprise Marketplace held on the 22nd of April, 2010 in Budapest, parallel to the Portfolio-HVCA CEE Corporate Finance and Private Equity Conference 2010 at the Hilton Buda Castle.


The Social Enterprise Marketplace aimed to showcase the social enterprises of NESsT portfolio to the business audience and other invitees. This third occasion is now becoming a tradition and an annual event after the first marketplace held in 2007 November and a second in April 2009. 


The Marketplace this year was also of high interest among the participants of the conference: a total of 22 social enterprises from Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia exhibited their products, presented their services, and had a great opportunity to talk to business people about the enterprises and raise awareness about their missions and activities.

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