The Arthur Guinness Fund 2010 Nomination Process Kicks Off

Search begins for the next generation of leading social entrepreneurs around the world

The Arthur Guinness Fund is now receiving nominations for social entrepreneurs who are making a positive and sustainable impact on communities.

Developed to carry-on the legacy of Arthur Guinness, The Arthur Guinness Fund has partnered with Ashoka, the world’s leading community of social entrepreneurs, to enable the deployment of the funds to new social entrepreneurial projects around the world.

The two organisations will work closely together to identify social entrepreneurs with systems-changing new ideas that will have a measurable benefit to their communities, and select 30 over the next three years to become Ashoka Fellows, supported by the Arthur Guinness Fund.

The Arthur Guinness Fund provides social entrepreneurs with the skills and resources required to deliver measureable, transformational change to communities around the world. Social entrepreneurs are people who recognise social problems and use entrepreneurial thinking to create solutions designed to engender lasting, positive change. Innovative in addressing social needs, they are passionate about making a difference to communities and those who live in them. They are entrepreneurial people from many different walks of life, with a track record of making things happen. This is the embodiment of a social entrepreneur who will receive funding from The Arthur Guinness Fund.

The nomination process opened on 28th September through www.guinnessforgoodcom and will close on November 30th 2010.

To ensure the success of the programme, now in its second year, and to further the mission of Guinness For Good, Guinness & Co. recently announced it has committed to increase the Arthur Guinness Fund to €7.4 million (NZ$13.5 million) by 2012.

The Arthur Guinness Fund is an internal programme set up to further the legacy of Arthur Guinness, who was one of Ireland’s best known social entrepreneurs. Set up in 2009 to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the lease for the St. James’s Gate Brewery, the fund continues to support community projects around the world. Projects in Ireland, Africa, Indonesia, the United States and the UK have already received funding, and through the additional commitment, the Arthur Guinness Fund will support the work of social entrepreneurs around the world for at least the next three years.

The Arthur Guinness Fund application criteria are as follows:

• The Knockout Test: A New Idea – The Fellow must present a new idea—a new solution or approach to a social problem—that will change the pattern in a field, be it human rights, the environment, or any other.
• Creativity – Successful social entrepreneurs must be creative both as goal-setting visionaries and as problem solvers capable of engineering their visions into reality. The individual must have a vision of how he or she can meet some human need better than it has been met before.
• Entrepreneurial Quality – Entrepreneurial quality is the defining characteristic of first class entrepreneurs. It defines leaders who see opportunities for change and innovation and devote themselves entirely to making that change happen
• Social Impact of the Idea – This criterion focuses on the candidate's idea, not the candidate. Ideas that will change the field significantly and that will trigger nationwide impact or, for smaller countries, broader regional change.
• Ethical Fiber – Social entrepreneurs introducing major structural changes to society have to ask a lot of people to change how they do things. If the entrepreneur is not trusted, the likelihood of success is significantly reduced.

A total of 30 Fellows will be selected over the next three years, each receiving financial, strategic and practical support from the broader Ashoka community to empower them to deliver projects that will affect positive, transformational social change in their communities and bring to life Guinness’ ethos of Guinness for Good. The Fund also provides information and resources for anyone wanting to find out more about social entrepreneurship.

To find out more visit www.guinnessforgood.com . The GUINNESS, ARTHUR GUINNESS FUND and GUINNESS FOR GOOD words and associated logos are trade marks.

ENDS

Note to Editors:

The new agreement establishes Ashoka as the significant partner in the delivery of the Arthur Guinness Fund’s objectives globally. In Ireland The Arthur Guinness Fund already works with Social Entrepreneurs Ireland where the partnership remains. The Arthur Guinness Fund also works with UnLtd in the UK and the British Council in Indonesia to support social entrepreneurs as well as contributing to projects like the Water Filter Enterprise programme in Ghana and Nigeria, aimed at developing campaigns to educate people across both populations on the benefits of clean water and hygiene.

About the Arthur Guinness Fund:
The Arthur Guinness Fund is an internal programme set up to further the legacy of Arthur Guinness and support social entrepreneurs around the world The fund was launched and set up last year to mark the 250th anniversary of the signing of the lease for the St. James’s Gate Brewery. Guinness & Co is committed through The Arthur Guinness Fund to identifying and supporting social entrepreneurs globally with the skills and support required to deliver a measureable, transformational change to communities around the world.

About Ashoka:
Founded in 1980, Ashoka is the world’s working community of more than 2,500 leading social entrepreneurs. It champions the most important new social change ideas and supports the entrepreneurs behind them by helping them get started, grow, succeed, and collaborate. As Ashoka expands its capacity to integrate and connect social and business entrepreneurs around the world, it builds an entrepreneurial infrastructure comprised of a series of global initiatives that support the fast-growing needs of the citizen sector. Ashoka’s vision is to create change today, for an Everyone A Changemaker™ society to become the reality of tomorrow. For more information, visit www.ashoka.org .

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