The F. M. Kirby Foundation and the Center for Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship (CASE) at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business are thrilled to share that Semilla Nueva has been selected as the winner of the 2023-2024 F. M. Kirby Prize for Scaling Social Impact.

Semilla Nueva is a social enterprise dedicated to addressing malnutrition for the more than one billion people worldwide whose diets consist primarily of maize, while promoting sustainable agriculture through the development and distribution of biofortified maize. By focusing on innovative agricultural solutions, the organization works to enhance the nutritional content of staple crops, ensuring that they are rich in vital nutrients such as zinc, iron, and protein. Semilla Nueva collaborates with seed companies, smallholder farmers, consumers, and governments to create a system where biofortified, high-yield, and climate-resilient seeds are widely adopted. This approach not only improves the health and nutrition of millions of people, but also supports the economic stability and environmental sustainability of farming communities.

The prize, consisting of $150,000 in unrestricted funds, is designed to help amplify and accelerate an enterprise’s impact on social or environmental problems around the world. In the 2023-24 application year, five finalists were chosen from a pool of 200 applicants. The five finalists include both nonprofit and for-profit enterprises working across Haiti, Africa, and the U.S., focusing on impact areas such as low-income entrepreneurs, sexual violence prevention, sanitation infrastructure, and formally incarcerated workforce development.

To learn more about the F. M. Kirby Prize for Scaling Social Impact and to view past winners, click here.

Read more about the four other finalists: No Means No Worldwide, Sustainable Organic Integrated Livelihoods (SOIL), The Somo Project, Urban Alchemy.