Flying leadership instructors get £500,000 of jet fuel

A social enterprise on the Isle of Skye has won £500,000 to fuel a 'flying team' of leadership instructors to work with young people from hard backgrounds throughout the UK.

More than 1,000 women and young people in Stockton will also receive innovative help with drug and alcohol addiction, after winning £100,000.

Both organisations are expanding thanks to two awards handed out by Bank of Scotland.

Skye based Columba 1400, which combines leadership training for young people with training for teachers and corporates, won the top prize in the Bank of Scotland Social Entrepreneur awards and was given a choice of a £500,000 donation or a £5m interest free loan. They chose the donation and the money will be used to develop their team of leadership instructors both on the Isle of Skye and in a new centre on Loch Lomond. They will also develop a mobile team that will be able to set up throughout the UK wherever their services are requested.

Columba 1400 founder and Chairman Norman Drummond said the award was 'incredible timing' given the opening of the second centre in 2010.

'It comes as we are moving from a model to a movement,' said Drummond.

Great timing was also at play with the winners of the second tier award.

Stockton-based A WAY OUT, which offers a drug and alcohol prevention service focusing on women and young people, had its first meeting on 22 June 2002, and it was 22 June 2009 when it made its case to the judges of the award.

Founder Jessie Jacobs called the win an 'amazing seventh birthday present'.

She was given the choice of a £100,000 donation or a £1m interest free loan and chose the donation. The money will be used to hire a business development officer and grow the organisation outside Stockton while also growing its successful eBay charity shop.

'We are now working with 1,000 people and within three years we hope to double that to 2,000. We hope our turnover to almost double, so that we reach the half million point,' said Jacobs.

Jacobs said that she saw A WAY OUT as more of a charity than a social enterprise but added: 'My vision is to bring the best of both worlds together - being a charity but being innovative in the same way as a social enterprise.'

Award judge Liam Black, founder of Wavelength, said he was not surprised by the fact that both organisations decided to take the donation instead of the debt.

'If there's free money on offer, not just any social enterprise, but any SME would take it - why wouldn't you?' said Black.

He said that both winners had shown very clear business case demonstrating exactly how the money would be used to grow the organisation and emphasised that the awards had got it right by offering in-depth free business mentoring with the money for the winning organisations.

He also argued that there was a question mark for the industry in general around the pipeline of social enterprises looking for large amounts of capital.

'I think it's unproven that there are lots of social enterprises that are investment ready and that needs to be proven over the next couple of years otherwise the ideas of rapid growth of social enterprises is all wishful thinking,' said Black.

He added that future competitions for social enterprises would benefit from a clear description of social enterprise and a focus on the social innovation being delivered.