Deadline: September 29th 2023 | Bright Future Fund For Social Businesses 2023
| Title: | Bright Future Fund For Social Businesses 2023 |
| Organisation: | Unilever |
| Fund/Benefit: | $200 000 |
| Deadline: | September 29th 2023 |
| Eligible countries: | Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda and Uganda |
Are you a SME operating in Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, or Uganda who is enthusiastic about social impact? Are you developing a cutting-edge business plan to improve living conditions, environmental conditions, and healthcare? If so, you should answer this call!
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Unilever suggests social enterprises for investment from TRANSFORM. They are seeking social enterprises doing the following:
Regenerative agriculture and models for recycling and refilling plastics.
Water, sanitization, cleanliness, and electronic health care (including telemedicine and models that support chemists or community health professionals).
Increasing shopkeepers’ incomes or giving young people in the informal sector opportunities to learn/earn.
Financial Details
- Grant money for projects totaling £100k to £200k over 12–18 months.
Criteria for TRANSFORM Support
Applications for projects must fulfil each of the following requirements in order to be chosen.
- Alignment with geographic and impact priorities
- Possess a demonstrable potential to improve the lives of low-income individuals in one of the six areas that TRANSFORM funds:
- Environment
- World devoid of trash
- Defend and restore nature.
- Wellbeing and good health
- Hygienic conditions, sanitation
- Electronic Health
- Integrated Economies
- Improve living conditions
- Upcoming work
- Be implemented in an East African nation (Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, or Uganda), ideally outside of the capital city, in a tier 2 city or rural area.
- At least one of the following criteria must be met: female ownership, local ownership, a focus on the extremely poor or marginalised, or a desire to expand to vulnerable situations (particularly those brought on by climate change).
- Using a creative strategy to address social issues
- Offer a project that demonstrates a new technology, business strategy, or methodology. This can entail entering a new market with a tested company concept.
- Showcase the catalytic function that TRANSFORM plays in the innovation’s testing and scaling.
- Be prepared to impart knowledge and share learnings for the benefit of society.
- solutions based on the market that could achieve operational sustainability.
- Establish a clear roadmap for the proposed project’s scalability as a business, with hypotheses that the project can test.
- Show how support for TRANSFORM releases resources or additional funds from other sources.
- An NGO may not submit the application; only a social enterprise may.
- The business must be mature and capable of carrying out the project successfully and absorbing the financial and in-kind help that is given. This will be examined in light of the £100-$250k desired amount. It is suggested for smaller, less developed enterprises to apply for the lower end of the range, while it is encouraged for larger, more developed businesses to apply for the top end of the range.
- Funds from TRANSFORM cannot be used to support internal projects at Unilever, the FCDO, or EY. The only recipients of TRANSFORM money must be third parties.
- Strong networks and leadership
- A commercially astute CEO and/or leadership group that exhibits personal dedication to the undertaking.
- Strong network of public, business, and/or nonprofit partners with tangible progress on the project under consideration.
- Value addition from working with TRANSFORM is evident
- Businesses must be able to demonstrate the benefits of working with Unilever, FCDO, and EY, especially when taking into account the importance of business assistance in addition to grant financing.
- They must be able to function in industries that align with Unilever’s knowledge and abilities and in which Unilever can provide value. With smallholder farmers, suppliers, manufacturers, and small retailers, Unilever can give experience in marketing, behaviour change, distribution, and create a test ground for innovations in their value chain. Unilever is curious about how impact businesses may open up new markets, serve as suppliers, foster innovation, and develop brand narratives that are driven by a higher purpose. This test bed offers data for both Unilever in particular and a general corporate environment, and TRANSFORM promotes businesses to form alliances with both Unilever and other corporations.
- Through TRANSFORM, EY specialists offer technical business assistance to impact firms operating on a non-profit basis, assisting them in overcoming particular scale-related difficulties. EY offers coaching and consulting services on a variety of subjects, such as developing and testing a business model, being investment-ready, developing a people and HR strategy, developing a customer strategy, and more.
For more information, visit TRANSFORM.
