Funding and specialist support are available for UK social entrepreneurs to help them develop as social leaders, and to start up or grow their idea for a social venture.

UnLtd is inviting applications from social entrepreneurs aged 16 and over who are living in the UK and who are the founder of the social business. Depending on the stage of development, UnLtd can offer:

• Funding of up to £8,000 for entrepreneurs who are starting up their venture.
• Funding of up to £18,000 for entrepreneurs who are scaling up their venture.

To be eligible, the social entrepreneur must:

• Have identified a social issue and developed a business model that works to solve it.
• Be committed to, and have a track record of, delivering local, regional or national social impact at scale.
• Be experienced, ambitious and capable of growing their venture.
• Have a realistic growth plan.
• Be committed to working full-time in their social venture.

Their social venture must:

• Be at least one year old and less than four years old.
• Have a turnover of less than £250,000 in their last financial year.
• Be dynamic and ready to grow to local, regional or national scale and have a logical and appropriate plan to deliver this.
• Have a compelling performance to date and/or a logical and appropriate plan for rapid growth to reach local, regional or national scale.
• Not solely exist to secure investment in the year ahead.
• Target beneficiaries predominantly based in the UK.

Priority will be given to social ventures which are tackling inequality and focusing on the most marginalised communities and those with high levels of need.

Together with funding, award recipients will be assigned to one of UnLtd’s dedicated programmes to provide support aligned with the needs of their social venture for up to one year.

The deadline for applications is 30 September 2024, with assessment decisions to be made in December 2024.