Georgetown Student-Run Organization Enables Social Entrepreneurs

The following is a guest post by Maria Hayden. Maria heads public relations at Compass Partners and is enrolled as a junior in Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service.

What are 60 Georgetown University students doing to making a difference? Inspiring, enabling and sustaining a new generation of socially conscious entrepreneurs through a one-of-a-kind social venture incubator and student fellowship program. This company is Compass Partners.

We are a multi-faceted non-profit unlike any student-run organization in the country. Our focus is social entrepreneurship and promoting sustainable business models that have a double bottom line: sustainability and profit. Compass fosters innovation, community awareness, and social development. We work with the entrepreneurs to develop a business model that will impact the community directly.

Compass Partners has three divisions: an incubator that starts and manages social ventures, a consulting practice that advises current businesses to develop a sustainable business model, and a student fellowship starting on Georgetown’s campus that combines modules and speakers to teach students best financially and socially sustainable business practices.

This last division, the Compass Fellowship is perhaps the most unique of Compass’ departments. Nearly 100 incoming Georgetown freshman went through a rigorous application process from which fifteen passionate and curious students were selected. Compass invests in these individuals through a three-year mentorship program, involving current Compass (student) partners, influential leaders in the DC area, business modules and hands-on entrepreneurial experience—culminating in seed money to launch their own venture. We teach them to effectively channel their passion and creativity to create a business model for driving social change in areas as wide reaching (so far) as children’s hospitals, musical programs in schools, and technology for the elderly.

The success and popularity of Compass Fellowship in its first year has been astounding and has inspired a new mission: to spread the social business concept among universities nationwide. We are currently working to develop a program at American University in Washington, DC. The future of business has a social conscious and Compass is pioneering business models and entrepreneurs that will combine the social sector and private sector to advance the standard business model into a socially sustainable one.