Business and Society Institute Programs

With 1-4 employees, microbusinesses may be individually small, but collectively create a big impact accounting for 7 million U.S. jobs and more than $350 billion in total payroll. When successful, microbusinesses generate income for entrepreneurs and their families while at the same time build neighborhood vitality. 

Start:ME Accelerator Program

Start:ME is an intensive 12-week accelerator program that provides the most promising micro-entrepreneurs (those starting businesses with 1-4 employees) in marginalized metro Atlanta communities business training, mentorship support, and early-stage financing needed to develop their businesses.

Start:ME has been working in the Clarkston community since 2013, expanded to Atlanta's East Lake neighborhood in 2015, and most recently launched in the Southside neighborhood in 2018. The program conducts sessions weekly each spring (January through April) working with 15-18 promising micro-entrepreneurs in each community. The program is delivered by Goizueta Business School with lead community partners Friends of Refugees, East Lake Foundation, Focused Community Strategies (FCS), and Purpose Built Schools Atlanta. The program has served 303 ventures, 82% of which are owned by people of color. 

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Specialty coffee consumption in the U.S. and other parts of world is growing with consumers paying retailers more; however, the farmers that grow this sought after specialty coffee struggle to earn a sustainable living for themselves and their families. When structured transparently, specialty coffee markets can create win-win opportunities for stakeholders across the supply chain.

Grounds for Empowerment Program

Grounds for Empowerment provides women specialty coffee farmers the market connections and business know-how to enable them to reach their full economic potential.

This cohort program works virtually with small groups of women growers from Central America through semester long consulting support and in country workshops supported by Emory University and partner school students along with small seed grant investments to support individual projects defined by each participating farmer. To date the program has served more than 75 women coffee farmers in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Nicaragua. 

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Transparent Trade Coffee Program

Transparent Trade Coffee provides an online platform where coffee consumers, direct trade roasters, and other ecosystem stakeholders to come together to share information and insights about the economic treatment of coffee growers.   

The program is home to research-based tools developed and maintained by Professor Peter Roberts which include the Specialty Coffee Retail Price Index (SCRPI) which consistently tracks roasted coffee prices from Blue Chip Roasters on a quarterly basis and the Specialty Coffee Transaction Guide (SCTG) which summarizes contract data from coffee buyers to serve as an an alternative pricing benchmark to the commodity markets.

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By bringing current business leaders and top graduate and undergraduate students from across the country together, the John R. Lewis Racial Justice Case Competition goes beyond short-term solutions and brings lasting, value-creating change. It is a virtual, student-run case competition that connects corporations and students interested in business in an effort to create innovative and actionable racial justice initiatives for those corporations.

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Leaders driving social change today require a new set of business knowledge, skills, and experiences to be effective. When provided with a set of multi-disciplinary experiences rooted in systems-based thinking, next generation leaders are better prepared to solve society’s largest challenges.

Social Enterprise Student Fellows Program

We recognize undergraduate and graduate business students who demonstrate both a deep interest in social enterprise and commitment to the Institute’s core focus areas of work. Fellows have access to the necessary hands-on education, exposure and experiences to develop their capabilities as next-generation social sector leaders.

Program Benefits include career coaching and mentorship through Executives-in-Residence and faculty/staff, cohort-based events/social activities, membership to Atlanta's Center for Civic Innovation, dedicated personal development funds, and opportunity to apply for summer or post-grad internship stipend funds for work in the social and environmental impact field. 

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