Now that we have handed out diplomas, said our goodbyes, and are closing out the academic year, we wanted to take a moment to reflect on the year.
We started off with a grand celebration of our 10 year anniversary – complete with cake cutting and TED-style talks from:
- Greg Dees: “Toward an Open-Solution Society“;
- Cathy Clark: “Capital + Ideas + People + Timing = Social Change“;
- Krishna Udayakumar: “The Challenges of Global Health“; and,
- Rachel Lichte: “Seeking Clarity” (Rachel also later won the CASE Seed Prize for her venture, The Clarity Project).
Net Impact Presidents, Abigail & Elana
We ran a multitude of student programs, showcasing the incredible passion and intellect of our students. We welcomed two new CASE Scholars (Jennifer Fluder and Michelle Kirby), had six fantastic CASE Fellows, and 41 Fuqua on Board Fellows working with 21 local nonprofits.
Our incredible Net Impact Club exceeded expectations again – winning Graduate Chapter of the Year from Net Impact National and putting on a variety of programs and events throughout the year, including “Week in Cities” (a career trek in which students met with representatives from organizations in education, social finance, social sector consulting, and more) and the 8th annual Sustainable Business and Social Impact conference, featuring 400 attendees, 50 speakers and 11 panels.
CASE i3 Fellows & Associates
The CASE Initiative on Impact Investing (CASE i3) launched a new CASE i3 Fellows program with 37 Fellows and associates, programming throughout the year, and multiple projects – including one with 2013 ESI Award winner, Riders for Health.
CASE i3 also launched a new website, taught a session on impact investing in Global Institute (meaning that every Fuqua first year was exposed to impact investing during their first classes at Fuqua), and launched a new Daytime MBA course on impact investing to complement the existing courses on social entrepreneurship.
We continued our efforts in thought leadership, for example:
- Paul Bloom published his fantastic book, Scaling Your Social Venture: Becoming an Impact Entrepreneur.
- Cathy Clark published cutting edge materials in impact investing, including “Accelerating Impact Entrepreneurs: How to Lock, Stock, and Anchor Impact Entrepreneurs for Maximum Impact,” and “A Market Emerges: The Six Dynamics of Impact Investing.”
- Greg Dees continues to offer his insights on the history and trends in social entrepreneurship: “The Past, Present and Future of Social Entrepreneurship” and “Advice for Social Entrepreneurs.”
- Erin Worsham published an interview with Greg Dees: “Reflections and Insights on Teaching Social Entrepreneurship.”
The SEAD Symposium kicks off!
Of course, our year’s recap would not be complete without mentioned of the launch of the Social Entrepreneurship Accelerator at Duke (SEAD). With a $10 million award from USAID, Duke will identify and support social entrepreneurs who are scaling solutions to global health challenges in low- and middle-income countries.
We welcomed our first cohort of 13 social entrepreneurs (read about them here), held the inaugural Symposium on Scaling Innovations in Global Health, and launched a new website.
And much, much more! None of these accomplishments would have been possible without the amazing CASE team, led by Matt Nash.
It’s been a great year and we’re even more excited for the year to come. View our 10 year anniversary video to learn more about what is to come:
J. Gregory Dees has been the recipient of the Ashoka and Aspen Institute Lifetime Achievement Award in Social Entrepreneurship and continues to share his knowledge in the classroom and the world.
