The Stern Opportunity

Issue date: 4/1/05 Section: Administration

NYU Stern's Berkley Center for Entrepreneurial Studies hosted the Conference of Social Entrepreneurs on campus on March 4, 2005. Attended by 200 Stern students and alumni, practitioners and investors, the annual Conference focused on topics related to financing start up social ventures. This event attracted leaders in the fields of social entrepreneurship and high engagement social investing to discuss best practices, new innovations and current trends affecting the process of raising social capital. Participants left with actionable information to build more effective and efficient double bottom line organizations.
After a humorous story about his days teaching in the South Bronx where he was the self described "worst teacher in the worst school district in the country," the morning keynote speaker, Steve Mariotti, founder and president of the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurs, shared his top five tips for social entrepreneurs. His number one recommendation is that organizations incorporate as for profit entities whenever possible to be able to access the more robust capital markets. He also suggested that the most effective organizations spend their initial capital on research, especially to build pilot programs and engage the top experts in their related fields.
The afternoon keynote speaker, Mario Morino, chairman of Venture Philanthropy Partners, discussed the problems within the philanthropic sector and how they have created an inefficient social capital market. He recommended that social investors focus on the impact of their funding, the recruitment of management talent to the nonprofit sector and requirements for financial integrity and accountability of the organizations they support. Recognizing the need to work together, Mr. Morino described the creation of coalitions of funders and political reform as catalysts for sector-wide change.
Panel discussions also convened to discuss topics such as developing your long-term funding plan, recognizing opportunities for social enterprise development, making the social capital markets more efficient and assessing investment opportunities.
Social entrepreneurship is defined as the process of using entrepreneurial and business skills to create innovative approaches to social problems. These nonprofit and for profit ventures pursue the double bottom line of social impact and financial self-sustainability or profitability. Through sheer determination and innovative thinking, social entrepreneurs are transforming today's society and working to educate our youth, protect our environment, defend human rights, and alleviate hunger and homelessness, among other issues.
NYU Stern's Satter Program in Social Entrepreneurship supports educational and research initiatives and fosters social venture creation within the School community. In addition to coursework, seminars and research projects in the field, the Satter Program provides $500,000 annually in seed funding and start-up assistance to promising social entrepreneurs through its venture philanthropy fund, business plan competition, student managed social venture fund and incubator.

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