FAQs

Social Innovation Challenge

Can the funding cover capital expenses?

The Social Innovation Challenge is flexible and can be used for a large variety of expenses, including capital purchases, rent, insurance, marketing costs etc. Please see the programme guidance for a comprehensive list of expenses which can be allowed under this fund. 

Can the funding cover salaries?

The Social Innovation Challenge grant can be spent on salary costs to allow one or more individuals to dedicate time to developing the enterprise. However, we would like to see applications that seek to do more than cover one person’s salary costs and can demonstrate a mature understanding of their business needs. Any roles paid for through the Social Innovation Challenge must abide by Living Wage and Fair Work First standards. 

The funding can be used for employing individuals directly or contracting staff in, but for the latter we will need evidence to ensure that the funding is being used in a cost-effective way and in accordance with our guidance.  

Can the funding be used for feasibility studies?

Yes, if there are practical applications that can be derived from the research itself. We recognise that innovation does not follow a straight-forward path, so as long as you can create impactful results through innovative means, we can accept applications from projects at an early research stage.  

For example, if the study you are undertaking will provide valuable knowledge to a disadvantaged community, which will then enable them to become more resilient or better equipped to solve the issue you are looking at, through a social enterprise solution. 

The Social Innovation Challenge can also cover research costs where they are linked to monitoring, improving or scaling up a project and we actively encourage partnering up with academics who can deliver this work. 

What is ‘direct social benefit’? 

When a social enterprise carries out work or provides services itself for the good of its beneficiaries (this could be individuals, a community, or even the environment) we define this as ‘direct social benefit’.  On the other hand, when a social enterprise provides services to other organisations, who then go on to do the work with beneficiaries, this would be defined as ‘indirect social benefit’. 

For example: an enterprise providing counselling services to a vulnerable group would be seen as direct social benefit; an enterprise providing counselling training to a charity who then provides this counselling to their beneficiaries would be seen as indirect social benefit. 

Your social enterprise may be doing both, but for the Social Innovation Challenge we want to see that the project or activities in your application focus predominantly on delivering direct social impact. 

What do you mean by social innovation? 

A solution that is socially innovative has the following elements: 

• It addresses a real and pressing issue that has been evidenced to have a negative impact on a segment of society or the world. 

• It proposes new, imaginative ways of addressing that issue. 

• It has the potential to address the issue to a larger degree or in a more efficient way than already existing solutions (i.e. it is not innovation for innovation’s sake).  

• Addressing the issue in this way will not only mitigate negative impact, but it will also create positive impact instead. 

We also adopt a broad understanding of ‘innovation’. Our understanding of innovation has nothing to do with the latest technological developments, although they can sometimes play a role. Instead, we define innovation as: 

• A solution that is implementing an entirely new approach that has not been tried elsewhere, but which looks likely to succeed based on information provided.  

• A solution that is implementing some tried and tested ideas or tools, but in a new way.   

• A solution that is reinventing an existing approach or way of working which has not previously been used to tackle their particular social issue. 

• A solution that is not new in itself but has not yet been tried in particularly challenging geographical locations or with a new target group. 

What do you mean innovation is contextual? 

Innovation is sometimes developed in response to specific, localised circumstances. These circumstances make ‘mainstream’ solutions inadequate for the specific context. Therefore, a new and different solution to what has existed before will be innovative, because it solves the issue better, accounting for the local circumstances and developing a bespoke, more efficient approach. 

What do you mean by community engagement and participation? 

It is important to make sure that those affected by the issues we are seeking to address are involved in the development of the proposed solutions. We seek applications which can demonstrate that they have direct links with or that they have taken steps to engage relevant communities in conversations around the challenges they face and the potential solutions that could be developed. 

We would also like to see that there are partnerships or mechanisms in place to test and deliver the solution within a relevant community. 

My enterprise will be trading across the whole of the UK.  Is this eligible? 

There are no geographical restrictions on trading.  However, as the Social Innovation Challenge is funded by the Scottish Government, most of the social impact must be delivered in Scotland.  This means that the majority of people who will benefit from the good work of the enterprise must live in Scotland. 

Do you require evidence of an existing track record of income generation and social impact? 

We do not require a track record of income generation or social impact, as we are keen to encourage strong new ideas that need a bit of support to get started. 

What we are looking for in a successful application is strong evidence of the potential to generate both sustainable levels of income and significant social impact from your innovative new idea. We expect you to demonstrate this potential through your business plan and market research.  

For existing social enterprises, this could be strengthened by showing that you have delivered projects that have been successful in these areas to date. 

Our idea will require more than £50,000 to get started up. Can winners combine the award with match funding from other sources? Will Firstport help the winner identify other funding? 

Yes. The Social Innovation Challenge is awarding the largest single grant Firstport has been able to offer to date (£50,000). This acknowledges the additional pressures that innovative ideas face to get off the ground. However, like all social enterprises, the winners of this challenge are likely to need support from a range of different sources.   

The Social Innovation Challenge can be a first funder, thus unlocking ideas that have perhaps struggled to get support elsewhere. It can also add to your existing funding package (as long as you have not received more than £250,000 over the last three years). You are encouraged to include details of other funds that you are applying for to potentially match the Social Innovation Challenge. Each application will be considered on its own merits by the shortlisting and (if shortlisted) the judging panel. 

 We also build a personalised programme of support for the winners of the Social Innovation Challenge. If what you need is additional funding or social investment, we will work with you to identify appropriate sources of funding, as well as looking at a package of support to get you and your enterprise ready for taking on additional funds or social investment. 

The Social Innovation Challenge accepts applications from innovators at all stages of development. How will you compare applications from very early-stage organisations, that might have great potential but take a while to get there, with those from more established organisations that can deliver impact quicker? 

We opened up the criteria for the Social Innovation Challenge to enable applications from anyone with a great social enterprise solution in response to the themes. During assessment, we will consider each application on a case by case basis, but we will look for the strongest proposals when deciding the shortlist. We will look at how innovative the ideas are, their potential to create social and environmental impact, the links to the communities that they are planning to benefit and their potential to generate income to support the social mission.  

If the Challenge is for new, innovative ideas, why are you asking for so much evidence including market research, business plans and cash-flow projections? 

The Social Innovation Challenge is a funding programme that aims to support great ideas, but is not an incubator programme. We expect applicants to have developed a fairly realistic plan for what they want to do before applying. Due to the limited funding we have to distribute and the competitive nature of this programme, very early-stage ideas where there is not enough clarity on the impact they will create or how the business will operate are highly unlikely to be successful.  

If you would like support with developing your idea and putting forward a strong business case, we recommend the following resources: 

• Just Enterprise (specifically 1-1 support or steps to start up on-demand learning) 

• Idea incubators, for example, the Melting Pot’s Good Ideas programme 

• Your local Third Sector Interface  

If your idea is still too early stage for this year, you might want to apply for one of our future editions. 

What are common pitfalls of SIC applications? 

The most common pitfall we see is not enough attention being paid to the business element. Many of the applications we receive have really fantastic social impact ideas but under-developed business plans.   

Cashflows are also often incomplete, they do not reflect a viable business proposal or provide unrealistic figures. We offer a specific support session on how to fill in cashflow projections and we strongly encourage applicants to tap into this support, particularly if they are not familiar or confident with financial projections. 

We recommend all applicants to consider which SIC edition they are best suited to apply to based on their existing skills, knowledge and readiness to run a business