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| Hungary CCO Batara Sianturi (back row, center) with Citi and NESsT colleagues together with the representatives of the award-winning social enterprises at the Award Ceremony. |
NESsT defines social enterprises as businesses designed to solve critical social problems. The for-profit social enterprises sell products and services, their activities being undertaken in the context of a social mission, such as supporting job creation for underprivileged people or addressing an environmental issue. Operating in the private sector, these businesses seek to balance both profits and mission to maximize financial gain and social impact.
With 10 business plans, nine for-profit social enterprises participated in a 10-month, NESsT-run program consisting of a series of business planning training and coaching, as well as developing financing methods to improve their bottom line and increase their social impact. At the end of the program, three businesses were selected for developing the most successful business plans and were awarded US$20,000 to grow their enterprises. In addition, they will enter the NESsT portfolio, which includes a one-year advisory and training opportunity worth over US $5,000 each.
Batara Sianturi, Citi Country Officer for Hungary, said: "Economic empowerment of small and growing businesses is one of the key focus areas of our community programs at Citi around the world, and this program is an excellent fit. The tremendous positive feedback we received from the participating businesses reinforces our vision for this joint program with NESsT; we believe that, by focusing on innovative solutions and delivering an approach that goes beyond just philanthropy, we are building social enterprises and supporting them in gaining more space and attention in the profit sector."
Twenty-five Citibank volunteers contributed to the development of the businesses as business-plan evaluators, mentors and in some cases as co-trainers. They appreciated the methodology of the program and admitted that they also had a lot to learn from the businesses.
Borbala Vaczi, co-owner of "Matyodesign," one of the winning social enterprises, said: "During the program, NESsT staff helped us structure our various development ideas and select a business strategy with the most potential for sustainably growing our business in the long run."
The 2011/2012 NESsT-Citibank For-Profit Social Enterprise Development Program is supported by the Citi Foundation. The program will continue with the 2012/2013 competition to be announced this autumn.
Award-winning businesses – receiving funding and a year of advisory and training:
Alko-soft Bt. (Budapest) – Award: US$8,000
Alko-soft helps individuals and smaller enterprises by offering solutions to their IT problems, provides IT support for people with visual impairment, promotes ICT accessibility, and also produces and distributes special software products, systems and utilities for the visually impaired.
Hazikence Tanoda Kft. (Budapest) – Award: US$6,000
Hazikence offers complex training courses on know-how of natural cosmetics. As a result of their courses, several participants managed to establish their own enterprises, which are further supported by Hazikence through a professional-technological background that also includes a rentable accredited workshop.
Matyodesign (Budapest, Tard) – Award: US$6,000
Matyodesign creates and designs clothes that are hand-embroidered and decorated with traditional Matyo motifs and are suitable for everyday wear. Their mission is to support the Matyo culture to find its place in the 21st century and to help Matyo women in making their knowledge and skills recognized and their work fruitful and well-paid.
To Learn More About NESsT, Please Visit www.nesst.org.
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