Project Sustainability Resources

Funding Resources: 

• MiddSTART: start a MiddSTART campaign to raise more funds for your project. 

• CCE Funding including Service Cluster Board Flex Fund, Academic Outreach Endowment Grants, Cross-Cultural Community Service Fund, CE Mini-Grants.

• go/funding: a list of most funding sources at Middlebury 

Advising Resources on and off-campus: 

• Academic Departments: contact faculty members that you believe might have some type of experience in your area of interest

• Vermont Center for Emerging Technologies: an incubator space in Burlington and Middlebury dedicated to advising and connecting Vermont startups. VCET teaches the course Midd Entrepreneurs at Middlebury 

• Vermont Small Business Development Center: a center dedicated to advising small business or social enterprise owners in VT, they have advised several Midd initiated business such as SheFly Apparel. 

• Addison County Economic Development Corporation: ACEDC is an independent, member-supported nonprofit organization dedicated to helping businesses in all stages of growth retain and create good paying jobs in Addison County. 

• Clinton Global Initiative University: activates this next generation through year-round programming that includes access to topic experts and change agents, mentorship networks, financial resources, and community events including the annual CGI U meeting. 

Courses at Middlebury and beyond:

• Midd Entrepreneurs: Through a series of assignments, class discussion, out-of-classroom challenges, and mentoring from the team and visiting professionals (entrepreneurs, alumni, etc.), students in this course critically test core assumptions of their startup business models and gain valuable resources that will form a strong platform for launching their businesses. (only offered in JTerm)

• MiddCORE: a four-week, mentor-powered innovation experience for undergraduates and recent grads who desire to launch their education and passions into the world at large. (JTerm and Summer)

• Professor of the Practice Courses: several courses at Middlebury in the Interdepartmental Department cover ideas around entrepreneurship and social impact: sample courses include Intro to Business and Enterprise, Global Health and Social Entrepreneurship, Management and Enterprise. 

• Business Strategies for Social Impact by Wharton School of Business on Coursera.

• Acumen Student Resources Library: Resource list with many short courses around business planning for social impact ideas. 

Off Campus-Idea Incubator Programs: 

• JumpStart Collegiate: Created in collaboration with LaunchVT and their successful LaunchVT Collegiate program, Generator JumpStart Collegiate Summer Entrepreneur Boot Camp is a 10 week start-up intensive, built on a rigorous turn-key curriculum, exclusively for college student entrepreneurs. 

• Watson Institute: During the 4-month program, the cohort of 30 young social innovators convene in Boulder, Colorado to tackle the greatest challenges facing the world. From climate change to income inequality and from political oppression to access to water, students enrolled in the Watson Incubator leverage training, mentorship, and community to unleash a lifetime of impact.

• Humanity in Action Fellowship: The Humanity in Action Fellowship explores issues of democracy, pluralism, human rights, and social justice. Each program is tailored to its location. Fellows are challenged to understand their host city’s unique history of injustice, its present struggles to encompass groups with minoritized cultures and identities, and the future of its democratic values. For four weeks, Fellows engage with local experts and community members, visit museums and historical sites, and engage in constant discourse with one another and program leaders.

• StartingBloc: Highly-rated leadership institutes in Los Angeles, Raleigh-Durham and New York that reach more than 300 civic leaders, educators, activists, freelancers and entrepreneurs each year. These serve as the launching event into the lifelong Fellowship. The curriculum focuses on adaptive/emergent leadership, transformative justice and restorative practices, and a respected leadership tool called Polarity Mapping, which allows people to hold and integrate paradox and divergent perspectives.

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