Founder Elizabeth Scharpf named Social Venture Network's 2013 Innovation Awards Winner!

Social Venture Network connects, supports and inspires business leaders and social entrepreneurs in expanding practices that build a just and sustainable economy. Its Innovation Awards Program honors and promote the next generation of leaders who are leveraging the power of business to solve social and environmental problems. 

As a 2013 Innovation Award Winner, SHE's Founder and Chief Instigating Officer Elizabeth Scharpf is part of a community that includes some of the most innovative, high-impact social entrepreneurs in the world.

Three cheers to Elizabeth! 

Buckminster Fuller Challenge Selects SHE as Semi-Finalist

SHE has been selected to be one out of 18 Semi-Finalists in the prestigious Buckminster Fuller Challenge, which was named the "Socially-Responsible Design's Highest Award" by Metropolis Magazine. The Challenge is an annual international prize program that awards $100,000 to support the development and implementation of a solution that has significant potential to solve humanity’s most pressing problems. 

SHE is being recognized for its SHE28 initiative, which addresses a global problem: girls’/women’s lack of access to affordable menstrual products and services. SHE28 helps women jumpstart their own business of
manufacturing and distributing locally produced, low-cost, eco-friendly pads. Preliminary evidence (from UNICEF/SHE surveys) suggest that the lack of access to affordable menstrual products/services leads to
significant costs in terms of education, economics, health, and dignity for girls and women. SHE28 is tackling this taboo with a local, ecofriendly, scalable comprehensive strategy to affect social and economic change.

As one of the 18 Semi-Finalists, SHE will be featured in the Idea Index, a searchable database of exciting ideas and solutions to pressing global problems. Finalists will be determined in May and the winner and runner-up(s) will be announced during a conferring ceremony on June 6th.

We are thrilled to make it through the application process and also be a part of a network of social innovators that advance whole systems thinking and design the kind of high impact global solutions we so desperately need. While we hope to win the final prize of $100,000, we are proud to be affiliated with this important Challenge. 

Check out our semi-finalist page and stay tuned!!