To accelerate the impact-driven future of business.

Programs

URVI’s work in the social enterprise space is rooted in these grounds:

-In the long run, impact-driven enterprises will outperform their traditional counterparts.

– Impact-driven concepts represent a powerful opportunity to drive equity and inclusivity in the workplace and in society.

-Impact-driven social entrepreneurship is the only viable future for sustainable society, and represents the easiest path forward to solving the issues of the 21st century.

But we don’t make a bet then stand back and see what happens – we dive into realizing it through a set of ventures and initiatives designed to fundamentally alter the social enterprise ecosystem to be strong, equitable, and sustainable. What started in 2008 with a seed of bringing small change in tree plantation in neighborhood has grown into a larger platform to include a range of incubation programs, original ideas, and funding vehicles for social entrepreneurs.

 

Usually its more than popular to speak about global change, social impact, social innovations and a lot of different social things leading us to social entrepreneurship. But… the biggest challenge is – HOW to make this “social good” PROFITABLE and how to build the SUSTAINABLE business model at the same time creating the significant IMPACT? Too many tasks… be INNOVATIVE, be SOCIAL, be RESPONSIBLE, be… be….

URVI is the avenue for Social innovation and Entrepreneurship program full of hackathons – boost camps – incubator – trainings, which is made with passion, love and good will of experienced partners.

Technology and innovation are crucially important and growing aspects of the social impact sector. URVI wants to encourage all of us – makers, engineers, do-gooders, executives, computer scientists, inventors, innovators – are making things that are not just nice to have, but that people need. URVI wants to join people identifying, prototyping, and scaling technologies and practices making the World Better Place to Live.

It was created to empower all innovators to create social good based on innovations. An Urvian doesn’t like small talks and ideas “on the paper”. URVI  was born to have a REAL RESULT in your hands.

Halcyon Incubator Fellowship

What differentiated this program in its early days was that it was among the first to offer a suite of support mechanisms for impact-driven founders without taking any equity in participating ventures.

Today, a growing number of programs meet that criteria, but few offer the same robust set of benefits Halcyon fellows receive: an 18-month fellowship includes five months of rent-free housing at Halcyon’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., workspace, a $10,000 stipend, legal and consulting support, skill-building programming, mentorship, and leadership coaching. But more than anything, the Incubator offers fellows a community of people who will see them, challenge them, and support them.

Intensive Fellowships

If our flagship URVI Incubator fellowship is extensive, our fast-growing tailored intensive programs offer the same opportunity to be a part of the Halcyon community, but through participation in focused experiences designed for specific groups of entrepreneurs.

International intensives introduce entrepreneurs from abroad to the U.S. market and our network of investors and supporters, while other intensives allow us to hone Incubator programming for different demographics or sectors. Where one group may go deep on skills training, another may focus on networking or access to capital. Each program is thoughtfully designed to go deep in areas that position its Fellows for success.

Investing

We get to know our fellows well, and we never stop asking them: What do you need? What they tell us is backed up by our own research, which says that there’s a need for more and better investment mechanisms for social entrepreneurs, particularly women founders and founders of color.

In 2019 we launched the URVI Angels, a regional angel network investing in impact-driven businesses and dedicated to growing the pool of angel investors to be more diverse and more compelled by the promise of social enterprise.

While that’s the only project we’re sharing publicly right now, watch this space as we continue to invest (pun intended) in evolving the funding side of the social enterprise ecosystem, meeting a need for our fellows and other entrepreneurs like them.

Research

As social enterprise ecosystems across the country and beyond have taken shape, Halcyon played a key role in tracking that evolution through our three-edition Social Enterprise Ecosystem Report. First published in 2016, the report combined publicly-available data and a national survey of social entrepreneurs and the people who support them, to provide a comprehensive picture of the state of social enterprise in cities across the U.S.

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