School of Public Policy 697SE - ST-Social & Envir Enterprises

This course is for students who dream of starting, running, or working for a social or environmental enterprise---an organization that places "people" and "planet" ahead of or on an equal footing with ?profit.? In this class, students will take initial steps towards creating a fictional social mission enterprise, with practicing social entrepreneurs acting as mentors. Students will also complete a project that will help solve an issue facing the social enterprise with which their mentor is affiliated. While designing the fictional enterprise, we will discuss systems thinking, design thinking, Lean Startup methodologies, impact measurement, and budget development skills. We will also discuss the legal structures within which social mission enterprises can exist: traditional for-profit, nonprofit, hybrid, and employee-owned organizations.