Fancy yourself as an entrepreneur? In Indonesia there are currently more than 51 million small and medium micro businesses, from selling meatballs to marketing mobile phone covers.

But an entrepreneur whose main business is to fix social and ecological problems in the community – now that’s very unique!

One of the biggest problems community entrepreneurs have to face is a lack of funding. It is very common for community entrepreneurs to offer new types of products and services that are unknown in the market. Goris Mustaqim. for example, used the heat from the earth’s core to extract akarwangi fragrant root oil. The challenge is that innovations always carry a degree of risk. How to convince banks and investors to fund a venture when the benefit calculation is not about a return on money invested?

In November 2009 we started our collaboration with Guinness Indonesia and their Arthur Guinness Fund,, a social investment vehicle, and together we have been working to support community entrepreuneurs and help them deal with the investment issue. The Arthur Guinness Fund has provided £230,000 as funding to expand existing projects run by Indonesia's start-up and semi-established community entrepreneurs. By the end of 2011 we hope to successfully support communities that represent up to 10,000 people.

In February 2010 we launched the Arthur Guinness Fund-British Council Community Entrepreuneurs Challenge. After a one year selection process we identified six inspiring community entrepreneurs who are committed to make a difference. To read more about our champion, please click here.

ARTHUR GUINNESS FUND - BRITISH COUNCIL

COMMUNITY ENTREPRENEURS CHALLENGE (AGF-BC CEC) WAVE II

In the Business of Doing Good

After a successful first year, The British Council in cooperation with the Arthur Guinness Fund will be holding the second wave of the AGF-BC CEC, a competition for start-up and semi-established community entrepreneurs. The aim of the competition is to identify and support potential entrepreneurs who have brilliant ideas to help develop their communities AND communities that have brilliant ideas to create their own enterprises.

We would like to invite you to take part in the AGF-BC CEC Wave II and get a chance to win grants with a total value of up to IDR 600 million.

If you are selected, you will also receive a chance to participate in the Social Entrepreneurship Workshop, which we plan to hold on 18-22 July 2011* in Jakarta where you can join a network of social entrepreneurs from all over Indonesia.

Click here to get to know more on the competition, and here for information in Bahasa Indonesia

*Tentative