The Search For UK’S Best Social Enterprise Bosses

Thousands of charities, social enterprises and responsible businesses are being encouraged to nominate their most inspiring and effective leaders, in the annual NatWest SE100 Social Business Awards.

The search for leaders driving business success for a social purpose forms the brand new category of ‘Leadership Champion’ in this year’s SE100 Social Business Awards, which also celebrate star performers in six further categories – from ‘Growth’ to ‘Storytelling’.

Also new this year is the NatWest Customer Champion, which will see relationship managers across the bank nominate their own stars from the thousands of charity and social enterprise customers they support.

Mark Parsons, Head of Community Finance and Social Enterprise, NatWest said: “Social Businesses make a massive difference to communities across the UK, and it’s the inspiring people behind them which allows this to happen. We want to recognise their achievements and celebrate their success.”

Tim West, Director of Matter&Co and founder of the SE100 said: “This new leadership award is not about hero worship. It is about celebrating and learning from those people who demonstrate that special combination of energy, focus, resilience, business savvy and commitment to social change that drives their teams both to make money and make a difference. I’m really excited to see who will be on our shortlist.”

How to enter the NatWest SE100 Social Business Awards

The NatWest SE100 Social Business Awards are open to all social ventures across the UK. To enter, organisations need to have completed their profile on the SE100 Index, including providing standard financial information and details on their social impact.

Once completed, organisations are automatically entered in to the Growth, Impact and Trailblazing Newcomer awards. The Resilience, Storyteller and Leadership awards require completed nomination forms, available to download here. The NatWest Customer award shortlist will be drawn up by the bank.

The deadline for nominations for the Resilience, Storyteller, Leadership and Customer awards is midnight on Sunday 25^th September.  Organisations must sign up to the Index and complete their profile by the same deadline to be eligible for the 2016 NatWest SE100 Social Business Awards.

Visit www.se100.net for further details on how to take part.

To learn more about last year’s winners, see our short films here.

Why should social enterprises take part?

The NatWest SE100 Social Business Awards is recognised as a leading awards programme for social enterprises across the UK – winning or being shortlisted for one of our awards not only brings you the respect of your peers but raises your profile among customers, media and potential clients and investors.

Awards winners will receive a professionally produced winners film about their organisation for use across future PR and marketing collateral, a beautiful SE100 trophy created by social enterprise artists, and a share of cash prizes totaling £6,000.

All shortlisted organisations will receive free tickets to the annual Good Deals social investment conference, and will be invited to bring members of their team to attend a special residential (overnight) Insight Event at the RBS/NatWest Business School in Edinburgh, in early 2017, focusing on “Leadership and Building a Brilliant Social Enterprise Team.”

By entering the awards and being part of the NatWest SE100 Index, organisations become automatic members of the NatWest SE100 Social Business Club, the business support club for social enterprises. The Club aims to provide insight, inspiration, expertise and peer-learning through a special programme of events and top notch online and magazine content.

By adding your organisation’s data to the SE100 Index you also become part of a growing number of social ventures aiming for greater transparency and collaboration with other like-minded businesses, contributing towards quantifying and building knowledge of the landscape of the social economy in the UK.

Visit www.se100.net for further details

The full list of 7 Social Business Awards categories this year includes:

Social Business Leadership Champion

The best social enterprise boss will be nominated by colleagues for their leadership, effectiveness and inspiration in taking the team on a mission-driven journey to success.

Social Business Growth Champion

The Growth Champion award will be given to the social venture that has experienced positive, financial growth from one year to the next thanks to an entrepreneurial and sustainable business model.

Social Impact Champion

The Impact award recognises social enterprises that take considerable measures to demonstrate and communicate the social or environmental impact of their business, using this to improve their performance and win new business.

Trailblazing Newcomer

The award for a newcomer social enterprise (with less than 3 years of trading) who has made great strides to become a leader amongst their peers, combining solid growth with a commitment to proving the positive impact of their business.

The Resilience Award

The Resilience Award is for those social ventures that continually deliver positive social or environmental change and repeatedly achieve impact goals, successfully tackling challenges and overcoming difficulties.

The Storyteller Award

The Storyteller Award will go to a social venture that has created and delivered a brilliant communications campaign to drive the impact and scale of its activity.

NatWest Customer Champion

Nominated by NatWest from among the social business customers of NatWest and the Royal Bank of Scotland, this award will go to an inspiring social enterprise customer who has combined strong community benefit with a sustainable business model.

Save the date

The winners will be recognised at a special ceremony in London on Thursday 19^th January 2017, to celebrate the achievements of all the fantastic social change makers on the Index.

Shortlisted organisations will be announced at the Good Deals conference on November 14^th-15^th, the UK’s leading Social Investment conference. All shortlisted organisations will be invited to attend this event for free to celebrate the success of the sector. For SE100 members wishing to attend the full conference, limited discounted tickets are available via www.good-dealsuk.com/tickets