Artemisia and Ashoka’s Changemakers believe social business is a powerful engine for serving vulnerable and low-income communities by delivering the critical goods and services they need to improve their lives and lift themselves from poverty.

We invite you to help build the emerging field of social business by submitting social business models that most successfully harness smart business techniques and strategies to build financially viable social ventures. We are looking for initiatives that can scale up to improve millions of people´s quality of life.

By participating in the Leveraging Business for Social Change competition, you can help identify how the most successful social business models provide social benefits in emerging markets.

Social businesses are a new breed in every respect: they creatively apply market forces for social benefit, and they can offer more inclusive participation in ownership, management, and profit distribution. Social businesses are pioneering new forms of distribution, pricing for affordability and community participation all along the value chain.

Help us surface the key challenges and successes of new social business models. Join us to connect the resources, insights, and skills of social business entrepreneurs, investors, workers, consumers, business specialists, and other entrepreneurs.

Guidelines and Criteria: The Leveraging Business for Social Change competition is open to all types of individuals and organizations (charitable organizations, private companies, or public entities) from all countries. We consider all entries that

• reflect the theme of the competition Leveraging Business for Social Change: Building the Field of Social Business.
• Indicate growth beyond the concept or research stage. While we support new ideas at every stage and encourage their entry, the judges are better able to evaluate programs that are beyond the conceptual stage and have demonstrated a proof of impact.
• Are submitted in English, Spanish, French, or Portuguese.

resent your entry by the early entry deadline, April 28. The 2 winners of the early entry prize will receive a digital camera each one. Enter before the competition deadline of June 9 and you may be one of three winners that receive USD $5000 to advance your project.

Details …..  http://www.changemakers.com/en-us/competitions