Giving Compass' Take:
- Elyse Burden argues successful social entrepreneurs should find a mission-aligned partner to help provide critical connections, financial models, and forward-leaning leaders to make an impact.
- Entrepreneurs bring drive and vision about what needs to change in the world, but too often they lack the financial and/or technical and sales expertise to turn vision into reality.
- Read about what impactful education funding looks like.
What is Giving Compass?
We connect donors to learning resources and ways to support community-led solutions. Learn more about us.
Today, many entrepreneurs are swinging for the metaphorical fences, applying innovation practices and market-based approaches to critical social issues -- often at the intersection of the private, public and social sectors. These startups and growth-stage social enterprises are uniquely positioned to make waves in their respective industries, as their impact-driven innovations can signal and support their peers looking to think and act differently in the midst of change.
These ventures often find themselves ready to scale their impact but requiring the support and expertise of mentors who can help navigate the way. This was the case for our team at Real World Scholars.
By our fifth birthday, we found ourselves in a sticky situation. Since launching our core platform, EdCorps -- which supports real-world entrepreneurship in everyday classrooms -- we’d seen widespread success with classrooms building student-run businesses, with partners around the country and a growing waitlist of teachers who we couldn’t support at our current output.
We knew it was time to grow but didn’t have the time or resources to make it happen. Despite being what some might call “a good problem to have,” a problem is still a problem.
Read the full article about preparing for an impact accelerator by Elyse Burden at Forbes.