Essl Social Prize

The Essl Social Prize was founded by Martin and Gerda Essl (owners of the Austrian home improvement supply company bauMax) in the year 2007. From the year 2008 onwards, a share of 1.000.000,-- Euros which is indexed yearly will be given away by the founders on projects by private social initiatives or social entrepreneurs. An advisory board supports the selection of the social projects together with the founders. The provided funds shall be used only for the sponsored projects and shall be used efficiently.

The aims of the prize are: Support of established social projects and/or future-bound ideas of founding personalities in the social sector; The honoring of social entrepreneurs for their achievements and for their commitment; Education and support of social sntrepreneurs; Know-how transfer of commercial companies to social companies, with the aim of encouraging corporate thinking and raising efficiency.

Prize winners

• 2008 – Padre Georg Sporschill, project "Casa Abraham" Ploiești, Romania; providing shelter and vocational training for homeless youths.
• 2009 – Szekeres Tiborné, creator of the foundation "For Equal Opportunity", devoted to housing and employment for the disabled.
• 2010 - Bill Drayton, founder of the Ashoka, for his life's work.
• 2011 - Almaz and Karlheinz Böhm for the project Menschen für Menschen
• 2012 - Father Wolfgang Pucher and the St. Vincent de Paul initiative for implementing the project "Housing First" to permanently liberate homeless people in Austria.

External links

• Essl Social Prize