The global population is approaching 7.5 billion, and more than half of our fellow humans live in poverty. Undaunted by the enormity of poverty, Miller Center for Social Entrepreneurship is more committed than ever to accelerate the impact of social enterprises around the world.
Pope Francis, in his encyclical Laudato Sí, and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) both link the suffering of the poor with climate change. We believe that social entrepreneurship is a powerful catalyst for addressing poverty, climate change, and gender inequality.
During the past year, Miller Center formed some exciting partnerships with forward-looking corporations that seek to tackle pressing global problems through market sensing, market shaping, and corporate social responsibility initiatives: • General Electric and Miller Center are training and mentoring social entrepreneurs focused on maternal and child health in sub-Saharan Africa.
-
- Seagate Technology teamed with Miller Center to prepare Seagate business leaders in Thailand as mentors for local social entrepreneurs.
- The eBay Foundation sponsored a GSBI Xchange program to transfer our social entrepreneurship methodologies to partners worldwide for local use.
Some very generous benefactors provided further fuel for our efforts:
-
- Tim Haley, a member of the Santa Clara University (SCU) Board of Trustees, and his wife, Ethna McGourty, donated $1 million to kick off a $10 million GSBF endowment fund. Celebrating its fifth year, 75 SCU students have participated in rigorous, mentored, action research with GSBI social enterprises worldwide.
- Jon Freeman, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur and member of Miller Center’s Advisory Board, gave $1.5 million to explore the replication of successful climate resilience-focused social enterprise business models. By understanding what routes lead to the greatest impact soonest, the hard work of proven social enterprises can be amplified and spread geographically.
Miller Center’s two initiatives—Climate Resilience and Women Rising—and our efforts to improve Social Impact Assessment will help propel us toward greater impact, working with more social enterprises, more students, and more impact investors.
