Supporting Social Enterprise

United Virginia is dedicated to growing the social enterprise sector in Virginia and beyond by providing organizing, advocacy, training, and funding support.

About

Founded in 2009, United Virginia Enterprise Foundation is a 501(c)(3) microenterprise development organization with a mission to grow the social enterprise sector.

United Virginia supports the growth of the social enterprise system by providing advocacy, organizing, technical assistance, professional services, access to capital and other resources.

Programs

Social Enterprise Accelerator

United Virginia offers a Social Enterprise Accelerator (SEA) as an affiliate of ** SEA Change**. Through the affiliation we offer accelerator programming and direct business counseling consisting of group education sessions and individual consultation, both of which are free and open to the public.United Virginia’s group sessions have been structured as three-session workshops, where we cover the value of business planning, fundamentals of financial planning, and how to develop a marketing strategy for purpose-driven enterprises.

Social Enterprise Support

We operate as an ecosystem builder, working to connect individuals to the appropriate community programs and resources. We also offer direct counseling to support the start-up and growth of purpose-driven enterprises.

Social Entrepreneur Meetups

United Virginia founded the RVA Social Entrepreneurs Meetup group in 2014 to grow activity in the social enterprise sector and it now boasts 800+ members. In 2015, spearheaded the Sustainable RVA (SRVA) project to determine and discuss goals and actionable items related to the growing social enterprise agenda for the Richmond region.We organized the founding of the Virginia Chapter of the Social Enterprise Alliance in 2017 with community charrettes that led to the recruitment of 5 organizational and 10+ individual members required to form a chapter. This advocacy and community organization work has expanded our mission to focus on development of the social enterprise sector.With our combined databases we currently correspond with 1,000+ social entrepreneurs in the Richmond region and across Virginia.

Community Incubator

Through our past and current support for community partners including The Network Incubator (TNI) and A Better Day Than Yesterday Initiative Program (ABDTYIP), we have worked to support under-resourced entrepreneurs with online and offline networking events, and delivered educational, exploratory and social opportunities to connect, create, and collaborate in non-traditional ways.TNI initially hosted monthly workshops at the Capital One Cafe, then moved online during the COVID-19 pandemic until recently transitioning to hybrid in-person/online workshops at the VCU Shift Retail Lab. TNI focuses on serving women and minority entrepreneurs (50+% of participants).

Supporting Under-Resourced Entrepreneurs

Our pioneering founderFWD program will support SEEDschool, a game-based tech and business training program for diverse teens.SEEDschool's founder, DJ Little, has been working at the edges of alternative economics, innovation, and entrepreneurship ever since 2010. He's also co-founded one of the first black-owned technology cooperatives in 2011 and has been a speaker and/or panelist at a variety of events.

** Aspire to Give ** is a social enterprise partner in Alabama and a consulting member of the Social Enterprise Alliance. United Virginia collaborates with its founder, Greg Doepke, on developing and promoting the benefit corporation movement in Virginia and Alabama. Greg is the author of of ** The Aspirational Philanthropist Learning Series ℠**, a program that guides donors with a learning roadmap as they seek to solidify their legacy through the giving of their time, talents, treasure, and trust to their families and those special social causes that are important to them.Aspire to Give is based on Greg’s experience as a financial advisor and philanthropist and the program trains people to be responsible stewards of their legacy with regard to philanthropy and their utilization of time, talent, treasure and trust.

The Team

Click pictures to view LinkedIn profiles

Rob Martin, Board Chair & Executive Director

Ayanna McMullen, Board Director

DJ Little, Board Director & Treasurer

Contact Us

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