Higher Education Solutions Network Annual Report (FY2017)

Launched in 2013, the Social Entrepreneurship Accelerator at Duke (SEAD) is a five-year program designed to support and scale global health social ventures. SEAD is part of the HESN, which aims to bring the knowledge and expertise of academic research institutions into global development. SEAD's theory of change is based on the idea that health social entrepreneurs face common challenges that hinder their ability to scale impact. The program provides a business "learning" accelerator program, as well as robust research, education, and evaluation components. SEAD's core goal is to improve the internal capacities of participating entrepreneurs and help them scale their impact, while also leveraging the impact investing ecosystem to ensure access to capital. SEAD's evaluation framework is designed to better understand how accelerators work, rather than simply determining if they are effective. The program collects data on SEAD program activities, perceptions and utility of SEAD activities, and organizational outcomes. SEAD also collects qualitative data through annual focus groups to capture the nuances of organizational outcomes. During the first five years of the program, SEAD hosted over 120 events and workshops, facilitated over 2,000 connections between SEAD ventures and potential investors, partners, or other key stakeholders, and developed five entrepreneur-friendly evaluation toolkits. The toolkits include CASE Smart Impact Capital, a scalable online fundraising toolkit for entrepreneurs, and DGHI Evidence Lab Evaluation Toolkits, which provide guidance on evaluating services, products, and technologies in healthcare. SEAD's entrepreneurs reported high levels of satisfaction with the program, with 93% reporting satisfaction on average across three years. The program also engaged over 202 Duke student "consultants" in fellowships, practica, and internships with international social ventures, and over 516 Duke student competitors participated in global health/international development innovation challenges. SEAD's toolkits and resources aim to support impact entrepreneurs in navigating the fundraising process and evaluating their work. The CASE Smart Impact Capital toolkit provides guidance on navigating the fundraising process, while the DGHI Evidence Lab Evaluation Toolkits provide guidance on evaluating services, products, and technologies in healthcare. These resources aim to help entrepreneurs and social enterprises in healthcare better evaluate their work and communicate their results with tighter timelines and more limited resources.