The Business Growth and Development Programme (BGP) at Cranfield School of Management has worked with ambitious owner managers for twenty years, helping them to create the future they want for their businesses and themselves.

In recent years there has been an increase in the number of 'social entrepreneurs' who have expressed an interest in participating in BGP. Unfortunately, in businesses where profit is not necessarily the primary motive, the level of financial investment required to participate in BGP can be a constraint.

Therefore, as part of its on-going work with entrepreneurs, Coutts has agreed to provide up to four Scholarships for a minimum of £2,500 to assist social entrepreneurs to participate in BGP by providing a significant contribution to the programme fees. To be eligible for a Coutts Scholarship a social entrepreneur and their business need to meet the following two sets of criteria:

Standard BGP criteria

• Business usually between £0.5m and £20m turnover
• Business usually no more than 200 employees
• Business usually trading for longer than 3 years
• Owner manager who can take decisions about the future direction of their businesses and implement them

Social entrepreneur criteria

1. The organisation must PRIMARILY exist to achieve social, community or environmental aims
2. The organisation must be run as a profit-making enterprise, where the profits are re-invested in order to meet the social, community or environmental objectives of the business
3. The organisation can have any legal structure as long as the owner manager is able to take decisions about the future direction of their businesses and implement them
4. The owner manager must have a strong desire to grow the business in order to have a greater and more immediate social, community or environmental impact
5. The organisation must be UK based

For further information:

In the first instance, social entrepreneurs interested in finding out more about BGP and the Coutts Social Entrepreneurship Scholarship should contact the BGP Programme Director, Gerard Burke on 01234 754880 or a.g.burke@cranfield.ac.uk

Thereafter they will be invited to attend a briefing event in London or Cranfield and, if appropriate, a one-to-one conversation with one of the BGP team. Once an offer of a place on the programme has been made, they will then be able to apply for the Coutts Social Entrepreneurship Scholarship. This will involve a very brief written submission which will be considered by a panel of industry experts in the field of social entrepreneurship. A brief phone conversation may also be required.

Recipients of the Coutts Social Entrepreneurship Scholarship will be required to consent to participating in any publicity that is generated as a result of the award.

For more information about Coutts' services for entrepreneurs, visit www.coutts.com/entrepreneurs