Want to take your social venture to the next level? Apply to the 2010 Global Social Benefit Incubator January 4, 2010

It is our pleasure to invite your application for the 2010 Global Social Benefit Incubator (GSBI™) -- organized by Santa Clara University’s Center for Science, Technology, and Society, and the Leavey School of Business and Administration.

GSBI, a program developed by Santa Clara University’s Center for Science, Technology, and Society, assists social benefit entrepreneurs in developing business plans that enable their organizations to reach increasing numbers of beneficiaries. The GSBI consists of three major components:
1. An on-line, mentored, application process hosted on Social Edge and based on three business planning exercises designed to benefit all who participate. In the applicants define their organizations value proposition, target market (beneficiaries), and “social business” model (key income and expense drivers).
2. 20 organization selected from the application process receive scholarships for an online (4 month) and in-residence (2 week) program that involves “action learning” and mentoring to prepare a sustainable plan for their organization.
3. On-going mentoring and collaboration for all who complete the in-residence component.
All who participate in the Business Planning Exercises will benefit from the mentoring and feedback on their application exercises, and 20 organizations will be selected for a full scholarship, valued at US $25,000, to participate in 4-months of online preparation and then to attend the intensive two week in-residence program (to be held August 15-28, 2010).
Selection for the GSBI™ scholarships is based on 4 criteria: 1) value proposition with demonstrated impact on important social issues for the Base of the Pyramid (BOP), 2) potential to impact a large target BOP market, 3) a business model with potential to scale rapidly while being financially self-sustaining (including contributed income); and 4) the application exercises have been completed by the top executive in the organization and that executive commits to completing the pre-work and attending the GSBI™.

Because of the importance of energy for the development at the Base of the Economic Pyramid, GSBI™-2010 will reserve up to 8 selections for organizations with demonstrated solutions for solving the problem of lack of access to clean, reliable, low-cost energy sources, including: off-grid power and light; locally-produced and distributed second-generation bio-fuels; affordable energy-saving devices, such as efficient cook-stoves and more efficient, less-polluting transport vehicles.

Applicants should begin preparing their exercises and post them on Social Edge beginning January 4, 2010 at http://www.socialedge.org/features/gsbi (SocialEdge website will be updated for 2010 shortly). Each submittal is reviewed by a member of the GSBI™ GSBI™ Application Mentoring Team (AMT). Social Edge members also are invited to review and comment on the exercises of any organization. Participants in the 2010 GSBI™ in-residence program will be selected from those organizations that complete all three exercises.
We look forward to your participation.
Sincerely,

GSBI Team
[email protected]

Official Website: http://www.scu.edu/sts/gsbi