From the Whiteboard – 

Summer’s end is no time to rest at reSET. With theircrowdfunding campaign approaching the final stretch and their second annual Accelerator Program set to launch on September 6, things are only ramping up. The Whiteboard wanted to spread the word.

Recap of reSET and Social Enterprise

As we discussed in our recent post on reSET, social enterprises are businesses that utilize the market to solve social problems. They are self-sustaining, mission-driven, and innovative, with both revenue-generation and societal improvement ingrained in their business plans. At reSET, the mission is to promote, preserve, and protect social enterprise. They do this through a series of programs, including anIncubator and Community Coworking Space, a Social Enterprise Innovation Fund, and anAccelerator Program.

Fundraising Campaign for Social Enterprise Investment Fund

For the entire month of August, reSET is running a crowdfunding campaign atStartSomeGood, a crowdfunding platform for social entrepreneurs. The campaign is to help raise money for reSET’s Social Enterprise Investment Fund (SEIF), established to give loans to ambitious social entrepreneurs in Connecticut. A minimum of ten social enterprises will receive funding from the SEIF annually.

The crowdfunding campaign is part of a larger fundraising campaign for the SEIF. As of the end of July, $77,000 had been raised. The crowdfunding campaign aims to raise $20,000 more. Ultimately, reSET aims to raise $1 million for the SEIF.

The overall fundraising campaign is being sponsored by CTNext, which has given a matching grant to reSET. If reSET raises $400,000, they will get an extra $200,000 from CTNext, effectively increasing each individual contribution by 50%. There is also a group of private donors who have vowed to match funds raised before August 31 dollar-for-dollar, effectively increasing each individual contribution by another 100%.

If you’re interested in supporting reSET and social enterprise generally, we urge you to check out their crowfunding campaign.

reSET Accelerator

September 6 marks the beginning of reSET’s 14-week Accelerator Program for aspiring social entrepreneurs. Classes will meet weekly on Fridays for four hours at reSET’s Incubator and Community Coworking Space, at 99 Pratt Street, Suite 200, in Hartford.

The program is limited to ten participants. It costs $1,025, including all course materials, lunch during program sessions, and three months of coworking space access. Scholarship funding is available. Applications will be accepted until August 31.

The Accelerator Program provides time and space to learn from and work with peers, professionals, and other members of reSET’s growing social enterprise community. Staff and subject area experts, including Bill Kenney of TestmyPitch and Sophie Faris of B Lab, will present on a variety of topics, including developing business models that balance purpose and profit, refining social value propositions, and defining and quantifying social value.

Each participant will spend forty hours of classroom time at reSET’s Incubator and Community Coworking Space learning from featured speakers and entrepreneurs. At the end of the program, participants will have an opportunity to pitch their business plan to a network of professionals, mentors, collaborators, staff, and a community of supporters and accountability partners.

Alumni of the first reSET Accelerator class included Chris Brechlin of Blueprint for a Dream, Charlotte Creech of Combat2Career, Maureen Farmer of The Farmer’s Garden, and Leslie Krumholz of Good Streets, among others. According to reSET, in the past 12 months the organization has helped launch and grow 11 social enterprises. Two of those businesses are working to become regional in scale, and one to go national.

Contact

For information on any of reSET’s programs, contact:

Meryl Willett
Community Builder
Phone: 860-560-9120 ext. 204
MWillett@www.socialenterprisetrust.org