Social Enterprise Courses & Workshops

Social Entrepreneurship 101 is a free 6-week class for social entrepreneurs who want to learn their passion and path towards changing the world. As on of the largest best ranked MOOCs in the social impact space, you'll join 1000s of change-makers from around the world in this unique study experience.

[Editor - Highly recommended entrance level course to the world of social entrepreneurship.]

WHAT YOU’LL LEARN:

• Understand the concept of social entrepreneurship and be inspired to find new ways to tackle the world’s greatest challenges
• Appreciate that social entrepreneurship is a mindset to tackle problems across different sectors (public, private, non-profit)
• Discover a pathway for how you can make change whether this is founding an enterprise, serving on a board, or supporting social entrepreneurs in other creative ways

COURSE DESCRIPTION:
Ever dream of changing the world or making a difference? You are invited to roll up your sleeves and join a group of entrepreneurs on a journey to change lives by changing systems. In this 5-module introductory course from +Acumen, we’ll cover what social entrepreneurship is and why it’s so exciting. Built from Acumen’s years of experience investing in social entrepreneurs, this course will also feature firsthand stories and advice from 4 inspiring founders: Charles Best of DonorsChoose.org, Thulsiraj Ravilla of Aravind Eyecare, Leila Janah of Samasource, and JB Schramm of College Summit. Designed for anyone approaching social entrepreneurship for the first time, this interactive learning experience will give you an overview of the sector. You’ll begin to identify a problem you care about, understand the considerations needed for impact and financial sustainability, and learn about how various entrepreneurs have thought about scale.

In our free Lean Startup course for the social sector, we invite lean social entrepreneurs, nonprofit leaders and would be change-makers to participate in a 5-week online learning experience.

[Editor - The next course in a series of entrance level courses designed to empower and educate the aspiring social entrepreneur]

WHAT YOU’LL LEARN:

• Uncover how social enterprises and organizations successfully run experiments, pivot, and remain lean and innovative while ethically serving their customers and prioritizing social impact
• Use the value proposition canvas to map out your customers’ pains, gains, and jobs to be done
• Create and test hypotheses to refine the value proposition of your enterprise or initiative

COURSE DESCRIPTION:
In this course, you will learn how to test, validate, and adapt your vision of change to ensure you’re creating the greatest impact and meeting the needs of your customers and stakeholders.

This course is ideal for experimenting with lean methodologies to start a new enterprise or build a new program within an existing organization. The lean approach relies on validated learning, experimentation, and iterative product releases to shorten product development cycles, measure progress, and gain valuable customer feedback.

These principles aren’t just for high tech startups but tools for any innovator, especially those determined to solve the world’s toughest social problems.

Apply the innovation methods from Silicon Valley to social issues. Build a business model to launch your social enterprise

WHAT YOU’LL LEARN:

• The four social enterprise models that Acumen has seen effectively create value
• Start a business model canvas to map out components of your potential company
• Understand how to develop a business model that can drive financial sustainability and social impact
• Create and test hypotheses about a social enterprise’s target market size, cost structure, revenue streams, and value chain partnerships
• Uncover revenue engines to power businesses serving customers living in bottom of the pyramid markets

COURSE DESCRIPTION:
You’ve come up with an amazing idea for a new product or service. Now how do you figure out if there is a sustainable business model to get this innovation into the hands of your customers?

This five-week course from +Acumen & Santa Clara University’s Miller Center for Social Entrepreneurship will help you think through how you can create financial value while creating social impact. The course draws from content taught by the Miller Center’s Global Social Benefit Institute (GSBI®) curriculum and combines it with Acumen’s insights from 15 years of investing in social enterprises.

While this course will not delve into the intricacies of financial modeling, you’ll emerge with a big-picture understanding of the key components to consider if you are building a business that prioritizes social impact and strives for financial sustainability.

How to know if your work is making an impact

WHAT YOU’LL LEARN:

• Gain a three-part a three-part framework to assess the breadth, depth and focus of your social impact
• Craft a theory of change for your organization or initiative
• Learn from case studies of how other social enterprises have measured their social impact in lean and rigorous ways
• Use Acumen’s Lean Data approach

DESCRIPTION:
This course will introduce you to frameworks and practical tools for measuring the social impact of your company, organization, or initiative. You’ll learn how to articulate short-term outcomes and long-term goals, and connect them to quantifiable metrics that support your decisions. Making sense of data to support your process will improve the impact you seek to make.