Social Entrepreneurs Get $10,000 Kickstart

Kick Starter grants, worth $10,000 each, have been awarded to three social entrepreneurs from the School for Social Entrepreneurs.

Luz Restrepo of SisterWorks has won a Kick Starter grant.

The Kick Starter small grant program, by the Macquarie Group Foundation, is in its third year and supports the early-stage social ventures of students and fellows of the School for Social Entrepreneurs with seed funding of $10,000 each from the Macquarie Group Foundation as well as mentor support by Macquarie Group senior executives.

The three social entrepreneurs won the grants for their innovative ventures addressing unmet social and community needs in the areas of health and wellbeing, youth unemployment, and refugee and asylum seeker settlement.

Selected from a field of more than 28 applicants by an independent panel of social enterprise experts, the 2013 winners are:

• Tony Sharp of Substation33: an e-Waste recycling facility with the goal to create jobs for disadvantaged youth in Logan (QLD).  It runs a free e-waste drop off centre, e-waste audits and a collection service;

• Luz Restrepo of SisterWorks: a social enterprise that supports asylum seekers, refugees, and migrant women from non-English speaking backgrounds in their transition from welfare recipients to businesswomen;

• Jamie Moore of Hello Sunday Morning: an online platform for individuals to create meaningful change in their lives by taking a short break from alcohol and recreating the drinking culture in Australia.

“We were impressed with the calibre of the social entrepreneurs competing for the grants, the strength of their business cases, and the potential of their ventures for creating social impact,” Head of the Macquarie Group Foundation, Lisa George said.

Previous winners of the Kick Starter grant, including Inkind, a venture which connects companies and charities through product giving, have had significant success in growing their ventures, in particularly in leveraging further funding, and strengthening their business plans and organisational processes.

SSE Australia, part of a global network of schools, runs practical learning programs for entrepreneurial individuals who have an idea or start–up venture with a social or environmental benefit.  

The Macquarie Group Foundation is the philanthropic arm of the Macquarie Group.

Since it was established in 1985, the Foundation and Macquarie staff have contributed more than $200 million to thousands of community organisations globally.

The Foundation has a particular interest in encouraging innovation in the Not for Profit sector.