Socially Responsible Business Plan Competition

Don't know much about this, but here it is

"Comments: Dear Sir/Madam, I am Edmilson Rodrigues, an intern at the William James Foundation for this fall of 2008. The William James Foundation is an organization in Washington DC that works with entrepreneurs who are starting socially responsible / sustainable businesses. Our main project is our Socially Responsible Business Plan Competition, which will give professional level feedback to all entrants, and $60,000 in cash and in-kind prizes to the finalists. We are recruiting both entrants to submit the business plans and judges to analyze them. The Judges are bankers, venture capitalists, academics, practicioners, and entrepreneurs. These individuals would commit to 5-10 hours of volunteer work between mid December and mid January to analyze plans that would be distributed according to their expertise. We would like to know if you can help us to spread the word on our project, helping us to recruit entrants and judges. Specifically we're looking to reach business students and entrepreneurship clubs. We have attached files with more descriptions for both entrants and judges. One key thing is that we are looking for folks who are actually planning to start their businesses, not for classroom exercises. Yours faithfully, Edmilson Rodrigues ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

The William James Foundation's 2008-09 Socially Responsible Business Plan Competition Who Can Enter: We're looking for individuals or teams that are starting for-profit businesses with a socially responsible/sustainable component. These businesses can be social enterprises (for-profit subsidiaries of not-for-profits), and we will accept plans that have been submitted to other competitions. At least one member of the team must be either a current student or recent graduate (within 10 years). See http://www.williamjamesfoundation.org/criteria09 for more details. What's the Timeline: Executive Summaries are due on December 12th. If selected for the second round, full plans are due on February 8th. See http://www.williamjamesfoundation.org/timeline09 for more details. Who are the Judges: We are working with a pool of judges that include subject matter experts in the areas in which we traditionally receive plans (organic food, green building, fair trade, diversity initiatives, etc.), entrepreneurs, and individuals who look at business plans on a regular basis (VCs, Bankers, CDC staff, etc.) Most of our reading judges are made so by invitation, but we are open to having more judges. To apply, see http://www.williamjamesfoundation.org/judges09 for details. What are the Prizes: The top prize that we offer to all entrants is detailed feedback on your summaries and plans. In addition, we have a prize basket for the top plans of cash and professional services ( e.g. 25 hours with a lawyer, 20 hours with an accountant, etc.) Last year's basket was worth more than $60,000."