The Global Social Venture Competition (GSVC) is seeking promising social entrepreneurs to enter our 2009 and 10th Anniversary Competition! If you are an entrepreneur (or budding entrepreneur!) with a financially sustainable venture that addresses a social or environmental problem, we encourage you to apply!
Winning plans in the past have ranged from global health to microfinance, from cleantech to education, from fair trade to community development, from business concepts to operating companies, and have included for-profit and non-profit models.
The GSVC has provided nearly $500,000 in seed-money to thirty social ventures over the past ten years, as well as over 16,000 hours of mentoring from seasoned professional in various industries!
For more information, visit http://www.gsvc.org.
Executive summaries are due January 21, 2009!
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WHAT IS THE GSVC?
The Global Social Venture Competition (GSVC) is the largest and oldest student-led business plan competition providing mentorship, exposure, and financial awards to emerging social ventures from around the world. The GSVC’s mission is to catalyze the creation of social ventures, educate future leaders, and build awareness around social enterprise. The competition supports the creation of real businesses that bring about positive social change in a sustainable manner.
The GSVC is organized by the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley in partnership with Columbia Business School, London Business School, Indian School of Business, and Thammasat University (Thailand). The competition is also supported by several outreach partners, including the University of Geneva (Switzerland), ESSEC Business School (France), Yale School of Management, ALTIS, Postgraduate School Business & Society of the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore (Italy), and a consortium of business schools in Korea. Every year, teams compete for more than $45,000 in cash and travel prizes, while gaining valuable professional feedback on their ventures.
Since its inception in 1999, the GSVC has awarded more than $500,000 to emerging social ventures and has introduced early-stage social entrepreneurs to the investment community. Nearly 25% of past GSVC entrants are now operating companies.
