MaGIC’s US$2.4mil Social Impact Matching Grant Open For Application

  • Goal is to fast track positive impact & growth of Social Enterprises
  • Priority for innovative solutions in five impact areas ex. food security

MaGIC’s US$2.4mil Social Impact Matching Grant Open For Application

Social enterprises, or businesses that proactively create a positive social or environmental impact in a financially sustainable manner, now have an opportunity to do even better.

Malaysia’s Social Impact Matching (SIM) Grant, announced previously as the Social Enterprise (SE) elevation initiative under the government’s Short-Term Economic Recovery Plan (PENJANA), is now ready to receive applications.

The Malaysian Global Innovation & Creativity Centre (MaGIC) will be administering SIM Grant on behalf of the Government of Malaysia. MaGIC, is getting full support as an agency under the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MOSTI) whilst also administering the SE Accreditation.

MaGIC’s US$2.4mil Social Impact Matching Grant Open For Application“The RM10 million (US$2.4 million) grant aims to support local SEs and other social impact businesses to sustain their initiatives and programmes, harness their capability to fundraise, increase public awareness in social innovation and scale their solutions for good social and environmental outcomes,” said Khairy Jamaluddin (pic, right), Minister of Science Technology and Innovation (Mosti).

“We want to build more social impact driven businesses that contribute to the economy and at the same time improve lives. That really is the objective of this grant, to promote inclusive and responsible businesses. SE’s are a great tool to help rebuild the livelihood of communities, and more recently those impacted by the pandemic,” said Khairy.

The grant is designed to prioritise applications that provide innovative solutions in five impact areas, namely community livelihood; food security; health and social wellbeing, environmental protection; and heritage preservation.

The SIM grant will be deployed via a 1:1 matching mechanism, and made available to eligible applicants with successful crowdfunding initiatives. It provides a minimum of US$1,190 (RM5,000), up to a maximum of US$119,100 (RM500,000) matching grant per application. The threshold for maximum grant disbursement differs based on the types of applicant, being, an accredited SE, non-accredited SE, and any other individual or entity.

The SIM grant Joint Approval Committee will assess the applicant’s feasibility, effectiveness and intended outcome, and review due diligence findings towards making a decision.

MaGIC’s US$2.4mil Social Impact Matching Grant Open For Application“Submissions will undergo a 3-step qualifying process, and applicants can expect to receive disbursements within a period of two months from submission, if all documents are in order. The selection process is stringent as we want to ensure the programme objectives are met,” said Dzuleira Abu Bakar (pic), CEO, MaGIC.

Applicants will need to show how their solutions are innovative, in addition to viability to scale in the impact the solutions create. Their proposal for the grant will need to detail the effective and feasible use of proceeds, as executed by a capable management team.

“The purpose of the grant is not only to double the impact social enterprises create, but to also encourage public participation by being involved in delivering solutions to society through their donations,” said Dzuleira.

To further assist our social enterprises in their crowdfunding initiatives, MaGIC has partnered with six crowdfunding platforms who will provide support for social enterprises to raise funds. Successful SIM grant applicants will benefit from a 20% rebate on platform fees, for the first RM1 million raised on each of these crowdfunding platforms - GIVE.asia, LaunchGood, NGOhub, Sedunia, SimplyGiving and SocioBiz by Alliance Islamic Bank.

[RM1 = 0.24]

MaGIC will also be working with several partners, including Lazada, in the coming months to roll out a #buyforimpact campaign to drive awareness and demand for goods and services offered by social enterprises.

To apply for the SIM Grant, please visit https://mymagic.my/penjana-sim-grant or email [email protected] for enquiries. To find out more about SE Accreditation, please visit https://central.mymagic.my/sea.

 
 
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