Author: rhelmzrt

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Background

Acumen’s vision is of a world based on dignity, where every human being has an opportunity to thrive. Acumen is seeking a cohort of entrepreneurs who believe that integrating gender equity across strategies, processes, and day-to-day work improves how we address the problems of poverty.

Gender inclusion in business isn’t just the ethical thing to do — it’s also good for the world’s economy and sustainability. Rather than add a gender-equity lens after scaling, it’s easier and more efficient when building an inclusive company to address and prioritize gender from the start.

To support social entrepreneurs committed to leading the change in gender inclusion, our accelerator will equip leaders with the moral leadership lessons, business skills, and learnings from our successful portfolio companies to continue scaling their enterprises in a gender inclusive way.

Eligibility

The accelerator is open to entrepreneurs who:

• Run a social enterprise (nonprofit or for-profit) based in East Africa (Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, South Sudan, Ethiopia) or West Africa (Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Liberia, the Gambia) who are working to solve problems of poverty and dignity
• Are dedicated to investing in their personal and business growth
• Are deeply committed to the work of tackling poverty and injustice and are interested in being part of a global community bound by values
• Have an enterprise that has been operational for 18 months or more (please note: if this is your second or third venture, this requirement is flexible. Be sure to include this in your application.)
• Have a team of three or more full-time staff
• Have a commitment to serving women across three entry points, and evidence of action in at least one:
  • Market (products and services)
  • Internal organization (workforce and policies)
  • Value chain (supply and distribution)

Benefits

• Facilitated virtual Learning Labs for peer learning and discussion
• Leadership lessons such as Listening to Voices Unheard and Partnering with Humility and Audacity
• One-on-one consultation calls with Acumen’s team
• Video tutorials on customer discovery, sales and marketing, financial modeling, pitching, and more
• Unconscious bias training, workshops, and self-assessment strategies for embedding gender inclusivity into your scaling plan
• Case studies from social enterprises that have successfully scaled and contributed to gender equity and advancement.

Collage focuses on promoting and nurturing Uganda’s Markers working with wood, food, leather, fabric and ceramics.

Visit our shop to support our work here

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Background

Yunus & Youth provides early-stage social business leaders with the tools and training they need to succeed.

The Yunus & Youth Global Fellowship for Social Entrepreneurs is a customized 6-month online program that empowers young people to build, develop and expand innovative and economically viable social businesses that contribute to the achievement of the 17 UN SDGs.

About our work at Collage

Collage focuses on promoting and nurturing Uganda’s makers working with wood, food, leather, fabric and ceramics. Visit our shop to support our work here.

Who is the fellowship for?

Echoing Green supports bold leaders from all over the world who see possibility in the face of the most existential challenges of our day. Together, we strive to build a world that has yet to exist: a future free from racism and its far-reaching consequences where all people can thrive.

This Fellowship is for people whose enterprises are at an early stage and who are experts on the challenge they’ve chosen to confront. We seek leaders who reflect the community they serve and bring deep knowledge of the issues into their work as they co-design solutions with and for their communities.

Eligibility

• Will you be 18 years or older by the time you begin the Fellowship?
  • Echoing Green Fellowship applicants must be 18 years or older by August 8, 2022.
• Are you able to communicate proficiently in English?
  • To be eligible for the Fellowship and fully participate in programming and support offerings, you must be able to communicate in English proficiently. Support throughout the Echoing Green Fellowship is offered in English.
• Are you an original founder or a leading member of your proposed organization’s original founding team?
  • We use the term “original founder” to describe people who launched or are launching an organization that is their original idea. You cannot have assumed a leadership position within the organization after its founding. To be eligible, you must be a leader with decision-making power within the organization and be either 1) a sole founder or 2) a leading founder on a team of people who created the organization.
• Are you the primary decision maker for your organization?
  • To be eligible for an Echoing Green Fellowship, applicants must be the primary decision maker and have the ultimate authority over your organization’s growth and strategic vision.
• Will you be able to work full time on your proposed organization throughout the 18-month Fellowship?
  • If selected for an Echoing Green Fellowship, you may hold other professional responsibilities, but you must work full time, defined here as 40 hours a week, on the work outlined in your Fellowship application, and it must remain as your main professional priority.

Organisational Eligibility

• Does your proposed organization have a parent organization?
  • Organizations that are independent but have fiscal sponsors are eligible for the Echoing Green Fellowship as long as the fiscal sponsor has no authority over the organization’s work and decision making.
• Does your proposed organization operate independently and autonomously from your parent organization?
  • To be eligible for an Echoing Green Fellowship, you must be able to make and act on organizational decisions of your own choosing. If other organizations or entities manage or hold decision-making authority for your proposed organization, you may not be eligible. Organizations that are independent but have fiscal sponsors may be eligible as long as the fiscal sponsor has no authority over the organization’s work and decision making.
• In your personal assessment, would you describe your organization or idea in the “early stage” of its development and in need of financial and non-financial resources to become sustainable?
  • Echoing Green seeks applicants in need of funding to initiate or scale their organizations. We generally describe early-stage organizations or ideas as those that 1) have operated with full-time staff for less than five years or 2) still need resources to grow and sustain their operations. Organizations that already have all of the following in place *may* not qualify as early-stage enough for the Echoing Green Fellowship: a well-defined program model; an initial strategic plan; basic organizational infrastructure (like a bank account, payroll, job descriptions, etc.); a staffing plan; initial funding sources; and a board of directors that meets regularly to manage organizational governance. If you do not have all of these elements in place yet, you may still be in your startup phase and eligible to apply for an Echoing Green Fellowship.
• Does your organization use lobbying to further its mission or goals?
  • Per the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, Echoing Green cannot distribute funds to organizations whose primary purpose is lobbying. Lobbying is defined as activities that seek to support specific political candidates, specific political parties, or urge action on specific legislative bills. Issue-area advocacy, defined as the attempt to cause political action using methods such as civic education and public campaigns, is not considered lobbying. For more details, please reference the IRS definition here: irs.gov/charities-non-profits/lobbying.
• Does your organization promote or recruit for a specific religious faith?
  • To be eligible for an Echoing Green Fellowship, the organization cannot engage in recruitment, promotion, or conversion for a specific religious faith to your constituency. If your organization’s work has a spiritual element or works with existing faith communities but does not promote or recruit on behalf of that faith, you may be eligible.
• Have you or any members of the organization’s founding or leadership team previously received an Echoing Green Fellowship?
  • For you and your organization to be eligible for an Echoing Green Fellowship, no founding team members and no people in a leadership position can be an Echoing Green Fellow.

To apply

Visit the official site of this opportunity here to apply and for more information.

Applications due: Tuesday, February 7 at 2:00 PM (14:00) ET

About our work at Collage

Collage focuses on promoting and nurturing Uganda’s makers working with wood, food, leather, fabric and ceramics. Visit our shop to support our work here.

The East Africa Social Business Ecosystem Builders program, initiated by YY Ventures and Yunus Centre, aims to increase the capacity of the existing ecosystem builders in East Africa by giving them access to new knowledge, technical skills and network.

The program will support ten (10) social business support organisations by enrolling them in a two-month-long learning journey. Through this program, two young professionals from each selected organisation (a total of 20 participants) will attend five workshops, design their own social business support programs with experts’ coaching and guidance, and they can apply for a matching fund of up to EUR 25,000 to implement their program activities.

The selected participants will:

• Receive world-class training from a network of experts to learn the technical know-how to design and implement social business support programs.
• Have access to funding support of up to EUR 25,000 to implement their proposed ideas.
• Have access to a global network of social business experts and other regional ecosystem builders, including microfinance institutions, social business funds, Yunus Social Business Centres and incubators/accelerators.
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Aim and Benefits of East Africa Social Business Ecosystem Builders Program

The selected participants will:

• Receive world-class training from a network of experts to learn the technical know-how to design and implement social business support programs.
• Have access to funding support of up to EUR 25,000 to implement their proposed ideas.
• Have access to a global network of social business experts and other regional ecosystem builders, including microfinance institutions, social business funds, Yunus Social Business Centres and incubators/accelerators.

Requirements for East Africa Social Business Ecosystem Builders Program Qualification

1. Only an organisation can apply; therefore, no individual application will be eligible for the learning journey workshops and later matching fund;
2. Local business support organisations, such as incubators/accelerators, co-working spaces, microfinance institutions, Universities, and Yunus Social Business Centre (YSBC), are eligible to apply;
3. Applicant organisations must be based in one of the four East African regions – Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda;
4. Each organisation should nominate at least two early-stage professionals (one male and one female);
5. Nominated early-stage professionals should be passionate about designing and implementing incubation programs and innovation challenges for young people within their communities; and
6. Participants should commit at least 5 hours per week for two months of the Learning Journey Workshop series and submit an activity plan to improve the social business ecosystem in their country/region.

Application Deadline

March 10, 2023

For more details, visit YY Ventures website

About our work

Collage focuses on promoting and nurturing Uganda’s makers working with wood, food, leather, fabric and ceramics. Visit our shop to support our work here.