social enterprise

The Big Lottery Fund is helping to create a new bank of young social entrepreneurs by backing this year's Make Your Mark With a Tenner initiative.

A £250,000 grant to Enterprise UK will support this unique opportunity which taps into the innovative minds of young people, giving them the chance to make their ideas happen.

Make Your Mark With a Tenner loans young people £10 and challenges them to make as much profit and social impact as they can over the space of a month. In 2009 over 16,000 young people under the age of 19 took part in the initiative, with the top 50 entries making an impressive average profit of £261.

The grant from BIG will be used to extend the initiative into areas of England where young people have little opportunity to gain experience in social enterprise. It will also help evaluate the impact of the 'Make Your Mark' experience on the participants and share learning with relevant national and local organisations such as enterprise and young people's organisations.