The competition provides organisations or teams working in highly disadvantaged communities with vital professional and financial support for starting a new social enterprise. The Call for Application was launched in 2017 February and close to twenty applications were received. After the thorough assessment of the applications, Badur selected six organisations and commissioned NESsT to provide a 5-month training and one-on-one mentoring to elaborate their business plans.The selected organisations and teams were the following:
- Bagázs Association, Bag
- Fényhozók programme, Baks
- Kiút programme, Szabolcs-Szatmár County
- “Lehetőség a Családoknak 2005” Foundation, Mosonmagyaróvár
- NMCKKSzSz, Bátonyterenye
- Romama Social Cooperative, Lak
In November 2017, the final business plans were presented in front of the Evaluation Committee.
Based on the final pitches, the Board of Trustees selected Bagázs Association as the winner of the Springboard 2017 programme. Through the programme, they developed the business plan of a mobile charity shop that provides access to quality clothing at a very affordable price for underprivileged communities in Pest County, in addition to creating employment opportunities for two salespersons. In the long run, the Association had always intended to complement the mobile shop by a charity shop in Budapest in order to enhance their social impact and to strengthen the financial vitality of the two complementary business initiatives. As part of their incubation award, Bagazs had the opportunity to develop a business plan for the charity shop in Budapest. After having evaluated the plan, the Trustees awarded financial support to cover the start up costs of the charity shop and Badur will also provide long-term professional mentoring.
The Trustees also awarded further incubation help to Kiút so that they can implement their business initiative. Kiút’s business intends to bridge the gap between firms experiencing labour shortages and long term unemployed persons. The social enterprise is expected to help place 100 persons annually on the formal labour market.
Last, but not least, NMCKKSzSz was awarded additional mentoring to fine-tune their business plan of a family-friendly cafe in order to strengthen their project’s sustainability.
