Academies for Social Entrepreneurship

The Academies for Social Entrepreneurship (AES) creates training and mentoring programs for sustainable, mission-based entities. It plays the role of convener and catalyst, connecting the organizations and people needed to create, grow and celebrate social enterprises.

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 150 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 they manage their business.

In fall 2012, the ASE collaborated with REDF and the UCLA Department of Economics on Social Enterprise Academies.