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The Academies for Social Entrepreneurship creates training and mentoring programs for sustainable, mission-based businesses. Our core program is Social Enterprise Academies. The Academies for Social Entrepreneurship plays the role of convener and catalyst, connecting the organizations and people needed to create, grow and celebrate social enterprises. SOCIAL ENTERPISE ACADEMIES ABOUT THE ACADEMY A Social Enterprise Academy creates an eco-system of support that nurtures entrepreneurship and innovation in non-profit organizations. Its goals are to: * Enable non-profit organizations to develop the skill sets and resources that will enable them to attract growth capital and increase revenue from earned, rather than donated income. * Build overall organizational capacity. Academies enable non-profits to improve organizational performance by applying business practices and analytical thinking to their everyday operations. * Create community-based change in the broader local non-profit marketplace by promoting convergence between the best practices of business and philanthropy. IMPACT OF THE ACADEMY To date, our unique combination of training, mentoring & "fast pitch" plan competition has: * Expanded capacity in 126 non-profit organizations; * Utilized the mentoring talents of more than 100 business men and women ; * Produced millions of dollars in new investment and earned income streams. 90% of those participating in one of our business plan competitions say that it had a significant positive impact and 65% have launched or expanded ventures which generate new income for their agencies within a year. Academies are currently planned or under way in OrangeCounty and Los Angeles and San Diego counties (California) and in Las Vegas.

"One potential source of funding for green and social entreprenuers is through a green or social venture business plan competition. These programs are organized by business schools and other organizations and are generally geared to ventures that are at an early stage in their development. Eligibility varies from event to event, but most school-based competitions require participation by students. Prize levels vary, but can exceed $50,000."

"About Hydrovolts Hydrovolts' new hydropower technology taps a plentiful but overlooked global source of renewable energy from water currents in canals and channels. Hydrovolts turbines offer an economical and easy way to generate reliable, local clean power in millions of locations around the world. The company's initial market is artificial waterways such as irrigation canals and wastewater and cooling water discharges. After initial growth in the USA, Hydrovolts will supply the huge global market for affordable local clean power from canals, dams, rivers and even tidal channels.Hydrovolts won the 2009 National Sustainability Award in the Clean Tech Open, the world's largest clean tech business plan competition. The sustainability chapter of Hydrovolts' overall business plan was judged the best out of more than 280 entrants. The sustainability is available for free download from the Hydrovolts website. Hydrovolts also won the 2009 "Best Investment Opportunity" and a $50,000 investment prize from the Zino Society Green Forum. We became a B Corp because the B Impact Assessment and corporate structure requirements are fundamental to operating as a sustainable business. B Corp has created a management metric system that is relatively simple but comprehensive and related to global standards such as the Global Reporting Inititiave and the Business Charter for Sustainable Development of the International Chamber of Commerce. We will use the B Corp resources and network to ensure our growth to a sustainable corporation is guided by the best management practices for sustainable profits and positive impacts. The Change We Seek® The change we seek is local economic and environmental sustainability. The Hydrovolts technology produces electric power at the household scale. It also can pump water and make fresh drinking water using reverse osmosis. Over a billion people have no electricity at all, and more than that have unsafe drinking water. We can help them as part of

"Green VC is developing a comprehensive resource of funding sources for entreprenuers working on socially- or environmentally-focused ventures. Please visit the pages below for some initial funding sources and feel free to send suggestions for additional sources to info [at] greenvc.org * Green and Social Venture Business Plan Competitions * Green and Social Entreprenuership Awards, Competitions, and Fellowships * Green and Social Venture Capital * Green and Social Venture Credit and Lending "