Our Objectives

To build a powerful community of support so that social entrepreneurs will thrive and to empower all citizens to act as agents of change, SENO has four objectives:

1) Educate and profile the social change movement to inform the general public about the impact of social entrepreneurs on recovery, elevate New Orleans social entrepreneurship to a global audience, build momentum for the movement, and inspire other residents to solve problems and take action.  We educate and profile through our website (featuring the start-up story of social entrepreneurs), monthly Group Think meetings (featuring speakers and an opportunity for emerging social entrepreneurs to pitch their ideas), Startup School, our annual “Be the Change: Celebrating Social Entrepreneurship” event, and our biweekly events and resources newsletter.

2) Build a strong community of social entrepreneurs and those who support them to nurture new ideas and to accelerate strategic partnerships, best practices, collaboration, and resource sharing.  We host networking luncheons where experienced and early-stage social entrepreneurs make connections and share best practices, we convene as a community to share and learn at “Be the Change.”  We will be launching the Social Entrepreneur Start-up School in partnership with Voodoo Ventures and Tulane Entrepreneurs Association, where emerging social entrepreneurs can nurture and refine initial ideas through pitching their ideas to an audience, receiving feedback on business plans, and listening to how accomplished social entrepreneurs got started.  We will be launching in full the Social Venture Accelerator program, an online platform connecting early-stage social entrepreneurs to the pro-bono professional services of engineers, graphic designers, accountants, financial analysts, photographers, human resources managers, filmmakers, grant writers, etc.

3) Support emerging and early-stage social entrepreneurs with their most pressing needs by connecting them to resources and back-office support.  Through our SENO/Echoing Green Executive Mentoring program, social entrepreneurs are formally mentored by executive-level leaders in the community from diverse sectors (government, nonprofit, social entrepreneurship, business, marketing, etc.) to accelerate the impact of their ventures.  The Social Venture Accelerator program will help social venture start-ups accelerate their impact by connecting early-stage social entrepreneurs to pro-bono professional services of engineers, graphic designers, accountants, financial analysts, photographers, human resources managers, filmmakers, grant writers, etc.

4) Incubate new social ventures that fill high-priority gaps within specific sectors. The Solution Incubator systematically incubates new social ventures that fill specific gaps in specific sectors (education reform, green building, health care reform, etc.) through a process of framing opportunities, conducting market analysis, incentivizing solutions through competitions, and supporting the launch of new ventures.