Social Entrepreneurship Initiative at Berkeley - SEIB

Recognition of Social Entrepreneurship is Increasing

Social entrepreneurship, the application of innovative ideas to social problems, is an increasingly recognized field that is achieving notable results. As its impact becomes increasingly clear, interest and support for social entrepreneurship continues to grow. New ideas are being applied to a wide variety of problems and issues, from the environment, to education, to health, to policy. Social entrepreneurship spans disciplines and transcends the typical silos that separate universities, businesses, and nonprofits. In order to unlock the potential for the creation of social value at Berkeley, and to help prepare a generation for careers in the field, we seek to bring together the varied resources of the university to create a social entrepreneurship center to coordinate, aggregate, and increase programming and interest in social entrepreneurship.

UC Berkeley as a Center of Social Entrepreneurship

UC Berkeley is an ideal center for social innovation. It is consistently rated among the top institutions in the world for the quality and breadth of its research enterprise. Students and faculty from a wide variety of academic disciplines are currently working on solutions to some of the world's most pressing problems and creating solutions ranging from biofuels to malaria treatments. UC Berkeley also has an environment conducive to innovation and progressive ideas and a track record of taking new ideas from concept to “market.” Social entrepreneurs such as Paul Rice, the founder of the fair trade certifying organization TransFair launched their ideas from Berkeley, as have technological entrepreneurs like Steve Wozniak. For new solutions to move from lab to practice, they will require strategic planning, operational, and management expertise, as well as a means to identify and engage with relevant partners from other disciplines and from the nonprofit and for-profit sectors. The Social Entrepreneurship Initiative at Berkeley (SEIB) would serve as a launch pad for students and ideas focused on social problems.

Required resources:

1. Total project needs: $100,000