ClassInfo

This course introduces the breadth of social entrepreneurship thinking and action. Social Entrepreneurs identify and address social issues using entrepreneurial principles and approaches. They act as change agents at the local, national and sometimes global level. They focus on creating value for those around them. In general, most agree that social entrepreneurship refers to innovative, organized responses to big social needs that create social change. Social entrepreneurship is not sector specific and is found in nonprofit, for-profit, and government entities as well as in hybrids and partnerships. During this course we will continue to ask what does social entrepreneurship mean? How broadly should we define its boundaries? How does it differ from other kinds of entrepreneurial activity and other kinds of social change? Leaders of the future need to understand how to harness entrepreneurial energies to tackle tough issues. This course will prepare students to participate in, create, develop and lead socially entrepreneurial organizations and initiatives. Students will study and use the concepts and processes necessary to achieve entrepreneurial approaches. Students will also engage in activities that are similar to those successful entrepreneurs do and will have the opportunity to frame a venture plan that could in the future be one they themselves launch. Students will complete a full mission driven venture plan for a social enterprise and present it to a panel of social entrepreneurs.

Terri Barreiro and Andrea Davila will co-teach this course:

Terri Barreiro is an adjunct instructor teaching social entrepreneurship and philanthropy. She is a mentor and coach for new social enterprises and recently completed her term as founding board member of Impact Hub MSP. She is a consultant for strategic planning, fundraising, and board development. She also serves on a number of nonprofit boards. She retired after 10 years as founding director of McNeely Center for Entrepreneurship, College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University. She is co-author of Social Entrepreneurship: the Journey from Issue to Viable Venture and Educase: Clemens Perk. Terri has more than 30 years of experience leading social change efforts as senior staff of United Way of Minneapolis, co-director of Dayton Hudson Foundation and as a consultant. In her career she has helped 11 social impact-focused nonprofits form and thrive.

Andrea Davila is an independent consultant specializing in supporting social venture funds and social enterprises. She was previously the Deputy Director at Echoing Green, the pioneering social venture capital fund based in New York, NY. Over the past 10 years, she has supported entrepreneurs, government leaders, and philanthropists to build organizations with a focus on social and economic mobility. She has worked across the sector - in local and federal government, in direct service and philanthropy - at the City of New York, The Blue Ridge Foundation, the Consumer Protection Financial Bureau, and Let's Get Ready as an experienced problem solver and capacity builder for early stage social enterprise. She is passionate about social enterprise and serves on the advisory committee for the Program for Social Entrepreneurship at Stanford University, as well as the Board of Directors of the Impact Hub MSP. She holds a BA in Philosophy from Barnard College, and an MBA from Columbia Business School.

1. Opportunity recognition;
2. Issue and customer assessment;
3. Feasibility analysis;
4. Assessment of entrepreneurial approaches, including organizational forms and programmatic approaches in providing products or services that achieve a societal good;
5. Design of managerial and governance systems to support the socially entrepreneurial venture.