Under the European Union co-funded programme titled Strengthening CSO Participation in Social Enterprise Education and Development for Decent Work, Job Creation and SME Development (CSO-SEED), the Business and Investment Readiness (BiR) Grants aim to strengthen social enterprise services in the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) by providing social enterprises and intermediaries with the support they need to enhance and scale the impact of their work.

Specifically, the Social Enterprise Intermediaries (SEIs) will build capacities of social enterprises, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) with a social mission or civil society organisations (CSOs) setting up or transitioning to social enterprises to make them viable, stable and sustainable. 

Prior to providing business support to social enterprises, the SEIs themselves will be provided with social enterprise training/consulting package through volunteer consultants. 

Volunteer consultants will be embedded based on their skillsets within Social Enterprise Intermediaries (SEIs are organisations that provide business support to Social Enterprises). SEIs each have a portfolio of social enterprises, which the volunteer consultants will work directly with to support their growth and development. 

Under this grant, SEIs must have identified a reach of at least six social enterprises.

Scope of grant

The social enterprise intermediary (SEI) grants provide: 

  • business readiness support to social enterprises at start-up or early stages in their development or organisations making a transition from a donor-dependent model to allow them to strengthen their organisational capacity and put in place plans for future growth and increase impact 
  • investment readiness support to social enterprises which are in need of finance in order to grow and scale their impact
  • support for organisations to more effectively account for, measure and communicate the impact they are making.

The grants will cover the operational costs of the SEI’s capacity building/mentoring process and activities to social enterprises. 

The duration of the grant will be a maximum of eight months. 

The maximum amount of the grant is €15,000.00. 

Geographic coverage

Civil society organisations - social enterprise education and development (CSO-SEED) will prioritise support to applicants delivering projects and programmes in the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) and those that have experience in implementing capacity building support in areas such as but not limited to entrepreneurship, livelihood and cooperative development and economic empowerment.

Applying for SEI Grants

Eligibility criteria 

To be eligible for the grant, applicants must fulfil the following criteria: 

  • legal registration Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Cooperative Development Authority (CDA), Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) with a bank account in the name of the organisation 
  • sound business model/financial standing
  • one-year experience of providing (emerging) social enterprise leaders, civil society leaders and social entrepreneurs with training, or providing social enterprises with support, or in certain circumstances has a demonstrated commitment to do so
  • experience of working in diverse contexts 
  • experience of working with marginalised and vulnerable communities 
  • demonstrated experience to meet the project and financial planning, management and reporting requirements
  • ability to leverage some resources and other value adding partnerships for the planned project.

Specific criteria will be: 

  • For CSOs: A demonstrated commitment to developing or supporting social enterprises through their community-based activities. CSOs with service type social enterprises will be preferred. 
  • Other Organisations: A demonstrated commitment to integrating social enterprise approaches into their programmes. There must be previous work done on social enterprise or for the sector. 

Grant Application Form

The application form consists of the following main parts: 

Section 1: Introduction and proposal summary 

Section 2: Programme Interest 

Section 3: Your organisation 

Section 4: Context and rationale 

Section 5: Detailed project description 

Section 6: Budget 

Section 7: Project Management 

Section 8: Sustainability 

Section 9: Declaration

Please submit your proposal electronically to marilen.soliman@britishcouncil.org.ph by 17.00 on 4 May 2018. 

Proposals must adhere to these instructions and to the instructions included in the application form (including page limits). Proposals must not exceed 8MB in size. 

Proposals must be completed using the following templates:

  1. Grant application form 
  2. Due diligence checklist 
  3. Conflict of interest disclosure form 

Along with the templates above, the applicant must submit the following: 

  1. Cover letter/expression of interest 
  2. SEC Registration 
  3. Latest Financial Statement 

Assessment of Proposal

Proposals will be assessed by a selection panel consisting of representatives from the British Council, Foundation for a Sustainable Society Inc, (FSSI), Balay Mindanaw Foundation Inc (BMFI), Philippine Social Enterprise Network (PhilSEN) and Department of Trade and Industry of Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (DTI–ARMM). 

This selection panel will meet within one week of the submission deadline, and will make the final recommendation for shortlisted organisations. 

See also

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