Welcome to the Michigan Social Entrepreneurship Challenge, the nation's first state-wide competition in social entrepreneurship!

This competition provides visibility and resources to our state’s most promising social entrepreneurs. If you are a MI-based social entrepreneur, or interested in opening a social venture in MI, we invite you to keep in touch! 

We just concluded our 2014 Social Entrepreneurship Challenge.  Interested in receiving future updates about the Social Entrepreneurship Challenge, events and more?  Sign Up Here!

What is social entrepreneurship?

Social entrepreneurship is the process of bringing solutions to persistent social problems through sustainable business models. 

Social Entrepreneurs create business models to address society’s pressing social challenges across the areas of chronic unemployment, urban revitalization, environmental impact, health & nutrition, among others.

Read about our Michigan Social Entrepreneurship Challenge Fellows, and learn how their entrepreneurial models are making a positive social impact in Michigan and around the world!

Defining social entrepreneurship

Michigan Corps sees the following 5 characteristics as characteristic of a leading social entrepreneur:

• The entrepreneur demonstrates personal tenacity and brings relevant experience to their entrepreneurial endeavor
• The solution addresses a clear social problem
• The solution influences systems, not just symptoms of the problem
• The model indicates a readiness to prioritize social impact over financial gain
• The model generates a sustainable funding stream