Social entrepreneurship course gives back during the holiday season

Nineteen groups of entrepreneurial students are developing innovative ways to give back this holiday season. G. Brint Ryan Chair of Entrepreneurship Dr. Jeremy Short has challenged his class with raising $10,000 for charities of their choice.

“Class groups can select from either DonorsChoose (a crowdfunding platform that supports teachers) or GoFundMe (a platform supporting many causes ranging from animal welfare to veterans’ organizations to mental health, etc.). Students create and develop the idea, campaign, community partner, and all aspects associated with raising the funds,” explained Short.

Coinciding with Giving Tuesday, a global philanthropic movement, each class campaign must kick off by December 1 and reach $500 before the end of the semester. Many teams have capitalized on the opportunity to give back by starting their projects early, and are either already fully funded or making significant headway in reaching their goal.

Bradley Huffman, senior supply chain management major, teamed up to support Homeless Veterans Services of Dallas, with nearly $400 already in the virtual bank. Huffman and his classmates chose to fundraise for veterans because of their military ties and passion for giving back during this difficult year.

“I have learned the importance of reaching out to people from all walks of life to help you fundraise and the power of internet fundraising, as it is very easy to share the word and donate,” said Huffman. “If we meet our goal, we will get full credit for our project, but we can also take pride in knowing we raised lots of money for great organizations.”

Short, who joined UNT this fall, brings with him a research background in crowd-funding, content analysis, family business and strategic management, and has appeared in outlets such as the Academy of Management Journal, Strategic Management Journal, Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, Journal of Business Venturing, Organization Science and Family Business Review.

Translating his research into practice, Short’s students are seeing the true value, first-hand, in social entrepreneurship. To learn more about the class campaigns, visit the links provided below:

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Campaigns that have reached their goal:

Other campaigns: