The Social Entrepreneurship Engagement & Development Lab (SEED Lab) is a 10-month pre-accelerator for early stage social entrepreneurs in Southern California. It aims to tap the deep reservoir of unrecognized talent within marginalized and under-served communities and support their efforts to identify and develop pioneering paths out of inherited problems that have buried and muffled those voices.
The program is designed to support the implementation of visionary ideas into similarly powerful tools to generate social impact, deepen civic engagement, and bring about empowerment and sustainable change. We tackle together various issues related to social entrepreneurship such as clarifying the entrepreneurs’ vision and mission, their branding and messaging strategies, start-up plans, business plans, budgets etc.
The program is open to mission driven non-profit, for profit and hybrid ventures active in wide variety of sectors: health, education, work force training, social justice, food justice, economic empowerment, LGBTQ+, arts and culture etc.
The selection process is highly competitive and includes multiple in-person interviews and a detailed written application form. It involves working directly with every applicant over a period of 3 months.
- six on-campus modules (2 days/module)
- individual and tailored mentorship and coaching sessions
- access to local leaders, captains of various industries and experts
- progress monitoring, benchmarks and deliverables
- University of California Riverside – Extension Certificate and credits
- free participation (donor money)
- $15k total program value
SEED Lab Alumni Network
The 2019/2020 Cohort
The 2018/2019 Cohort
