The Social Enterprise Accelerator
SEA Change cares about the well being of our communities. We help social entrepreneurs reach more people in a meaningful way. We support entrepreneurs in becoming a part of their local SE ecosystem by helping them develop a sustainable business model, access funding, and solidify their meaningful social impact. Offering both in-person and online programs, we work to meet the needs of social entrepreneurs everywhere!
Our History
For years, SEA Change has been guided by the principle that entrepreneurship, and entrepreneurs, can change the world for the better. SEA Change had simple beginnings as a training program run by consultants. Working with our amazing partners in Rhode Island, SE Greenhouse, the Business of Good Foundation brought a time-tested curriculum first to NE Ohio (Cleveland) in 2015, and expanded to Columbus in 2016 in partnership with SocialVentures and CauseImpact. In 2017 one director was hired in each city (Next Step Business Consulting in Columbus and Bold Startups in Cleveland), in order to expand the programming. 79 successful alumni later, it became apparent that our reality was surpassing our consultant/program model, and we needed a change. In order to “walk the walk” of a social enterprise we first completed a financial sustainability assessment and identified our measurable social impact. Now, SEA Change is a registered non-profit entity based in Columbus, Ohio, continuing its mission to help entrepreneurs change the world.
What We Do
We have a 14 module curriculum that helps entrepreneurs move forward further, faster. Through the weeks of our program, entrepreneurs will solidify their measurable social impact, identify a financial sustainability plan, and connect to their local social enterprise ecosystem. We work through partnership to grow the number of well vetted social enterprises, and 87% of our alumni are still in business years after our educational programming. We recognize that social entrepreneurship may not be for everyone. Some participants use our program to figure out they need to pivot their idea. Some determine they fall more into a traditional non-profit or for-profit model. Ultimately, if our alumni know they’ve thought everything through and made the right decision for their business, we’ve done our job.