Social Entrepreneurship and Venture Philanthropy Education

Since 2013, YFP has funded courses on social entrepreneurship and venture philanthropy at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST). Offered at the MBA level, the class was also open to students from different faculties. The students formed interdisciplinary teams that acted as consultants for local Hong Kong social enterprises, pitching on behalf of the social enterprise for HK$250,000 from YFP. The students also helped to decide which organization received the grant funding, as they took on the role of a funder.

From 2015-2020, YFP formed a partnership with the HKSAR government’s Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship Development Fund (SIE Fund) to expand the Nurturing Social Minds program from HKUST to The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) and the Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU), delivering 16 interdisciplinary action-based courses on social entrepreneurship and venture philanthropy at the MBA, postgraduate, and undergraduate levels.

To date, over 400 students have learned about social entrepreneurship and social finance best practices in both local and global contexts. 64 social enterprises have benefited from student-initiated consulting projects. YFP’s grant funding has supported winning social enterprises to tackle pressing social problems such as environmental sustainability, social inclusion, education, innovative fundraising for charities, elderly services and services for differently abled people.

Nurturing Social Minds has a program-dedicated website, which can be found here.