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Corporate Social Responsibility
News
1.22.2007 - 09:00am ET
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Foundation to Provide $40,000 in Cash and Prizes to Socially Responsible Business Plans
(CSRwire) WASHINGTON, DC. - January 22, 2007 - The William James Foundation announces
its 4th Annual Socially Responsible Business Plan Competition.
This competition supports entrepreneurs who are committed to
multiple-bottom line businesses (people, planet, profit) by providing
entrants with expert feedback and over $40,000 in cash and in-kind prizes
to the top plans. Past winners have included business ventures in a wide
array of fields ranging from portable vaccine pacs used to safely
transport supplies to medical outreach centers worldwide; an Afghanistan
company that sends security alerts via SMS text messages; and hand-made
organic clothing and accessories using closed-loop resource cycling.
The competition is open to for-profit business (or business ideas) with at
least one member who is a current student or has graduated within the past
five years. If you are interested in submitting an entry, please see www.williamjamesfoundation.org
for details and entry qualifications or contact ian.fisk@williamjamesfoundation.org.
The prizes include cash, software, legal and accounting services, and
technical and communications consulting. Prizes have been donated by a
number of organizations including CitySoft, an online software provider
serving the social sector, Affinity Labs, a shared-space office
environments for start-ups, Community IT Innovators, Acumen Financial,
Swankin & Turner law firm, Strategic Sustainability Consulting, ITF
Consulting, Net Impact, and others. The competition winners choose the
prize most valuable to them in order of finish.
The primary prize, however, is the feedback given to every qualified plan.
The judges are experts in both social ventures and traditional business
plans, and include community activists, Wall Street professionals,
academics, and CEOs of national for-profit and not-for-profit
organizations. Each plan will be read multiple times from different
viewpoints.
Ian Fisk, executive director of the William James Foundation and a
longtime sustainable business activist through Net Impact, says "We're at
a tipping point wherein the entrepreneur who builds in long-term values of
sustainability is the one who will be successful. Most of what people think
of as environmental and social activism in business is simply long-term
thinking about energy costs and human resources. There are thousands of
good ideas out there. The foundation wants to find those that are attached
to solid business plans and help them succeed.”
Executive Summaries for the 2007 competition are due January 26th. On
February 9th, the Foundation will hold an educational symposium at the
Kogod School of Business at American University, providing general
feedback to all entrants in attendance, and announcing which teams will be
invited to submit full plans in the next round. Out of those, three
finalists will compete in a public presentation on April 13th in
Washington, DC where audience members will join judges in a question and
answer session.
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