The Academies for Social Entrepreneurship promotes the development of social enterprises-- business ventures which address social problems. Social enterprises are ‘more-than-profit’ businesses that use blended-value models to create a revenue-generating business with a social-value-generating element. Although our work to date has been directed to not-for-profit organizations, our programs are designed to serve a broad range of social entrepreneurs.
ASE’s core program is Social Enterprise Academies, which provide training, mentoring and the opportunity to compete in a business plan competition. In the past three years, working with a variety of strategic partners, ASE has produced fourteen Social Enterprise Academies. The unique program has expanded capacity for over one hundred and fifty social entrepreneurs, producing millions of dollars in new investment and earned income streams. In post-program evaluation reports, 65% of the participants generated new revenue within a year of participating and 94% said that their participation in the Academy had a valuable, significant impact in the way that they manage their business.
Most of ASE’s programs are sponsored by Charitable Ventures of Orange County, a public foundation dedicated to providing resources and support services to charitable ventures and projects. CVOC accounting services and other capacity building assistance enables ASE staff to focus on program services rather back office operations.
SOCIAL ENTERPISE ACADEMIES
ABOUT THE ACADEMY
A Social Enterprise Academy combines training, mentoring and a venture competition to nurture entrepreneurship and innovation with cohorts of not-for-profit organizations. It takes place over three to six months. The goals are to:
Enable not-for-profit organizations to develop the skill sets and resources that will enable them to attract growth capital and increase revenue from earned, rather than donated income.
Build overall organizational capacity. Academies enable not-for-profit organizations to improve organizational performance by applying business practices and analytical thinking to their everyday operations.
Create community-based change in the broader local not-for-profit marketplace by promoting convergence between the best practices of business and philanthropy.
IMPACT OF THE ACADEMY
To date, our unique combination of training, mentoring & “fast pitch” venture competition has:
Expanded capacity in 189 not-for-profit organizations
Utilized the mentoring talents of more than 150 business men and women
Produced millions of dollars in new investment and earned income streams.
