Ecosystem Partners

The New School’s New York City location offers a rare opportunity to experience and build connections and relationships with partner organizations, frontline community partners, and ecosystem funders that share a sense of urgency and a desire to look broadly and deeply, to cultivate the development of entrepreneurial skills, growth mindsets, and inclusive design approaches to actualize innovation in the world.

Our partners include the following companies and organizations:

• Blue Ridge Labs
• The Resolution Project
• Brand Counsel
• Parsons ELab

Mentorship Partners

The IEI Graduate Fellowship program is structured to a large extent based on the needs of each student. For that reason, the program invites mentors to share their stories and the unique industry challenges they've faced, offering critical insights and expertise. Mentors also advise students with more choices for moving their business ventures and nonprofit initiatives forward. IEI is actively cultivating relationships with serial entrepreneurs, social impact trailblazers, and various other subject-matter experts to provide students with an influential network as they continue on their entrepreneurial journey.

If you are interested in serving as a mentor to our IEI Graduate Fellows, please contact impactentrepreneur@newschool.edu.

Our Funding

Catalytic funding for the Impact Entrepreneurship Initiative is made possible through the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation’s Inclusion Open program. This program awards funds to organizations working to help female entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs of color achieve higher rates of success. The Inclusion Open program is a facet of the Kauffman Foundation’s Zero Barriers movement, which is based on the belief that all people have a fundamental right to turn an idea into an economic reality, regardless of who they are or where they live. Based in Kansas City, Missouri, the Kauffman Foundation is a private, nonpartisan foundation that works together with communities in education and entrepreneurship to create uncommon solutions and empower people to shape their future. It uses its $2 billion in assets to collaboratively help people be self-sufficient, productive citizens. For more information about the lusion Open program, visit the foundation's website.