Preparing a new generation of social enterprise leaders  to bridge the nonprofit and business worlds.

A major challenge of the emerging fields of social enterprise and venture philanthropy is that of identifying individuals with the mixture of skills needed to understand the unique cultural, ethical and management needs of nonprofit organizations as they enter the for-profit marketplace.

The NESsT Entrepreneur-in-Residence (NESsTER) program was launched by NESsT in 1999 to address this shortcoming by providing opportunities for recent graduates of business and nonprofit management programs and for other young/mid-career professionals to work on distinct initiatives with NESsT and the social enterprises we support.

The ultimate goal of the NESsTER program is to build a cadre of professional leaders prepared with this unique set of management skills to further the fields of social enterprise and venture philanthropy around the world.

The NESsT program currently has two components:

• NESsTER MBA Program
  
  
• NESsTER Professionals Program

1. NESsTER MBA Program

In collaboration with top universities in Europe, Latin America and the United States and with the internship program of Net Impact (formerly Students for Responsible Business), the NESsTER program now provides semester-, summer-, and year-long opportunities for current or recently-graduated masters of business administration (MBA) graduate school students to work with NESsT and/or directly with the social enterprises in the NESsT Venture Fund portfolio.

To date, NESsT has hosted NESsTERs from the following prominent universities:

University of Chicago Graduate School of Business

Columbia University School of International & Public Affairs (SIPA)

Dartmouth College, Tuck School of Business

Georgetown University, McDonough School of Business

HEC School of Management (Paris)

University of Notre Dame, Mendoza College of Business

Oxford University, Said Business School

University of Pennsylvania, The Wharton School

Stanford University

Thunderbird, The American Graduate School of International Management

University of Michigan, Ross School of Business

The following MBA students have been NESsTERs since the start of the program (to read select profiles, click on a NESsTER's name):

2. NESsTER Professionals Program
The NESsTER program also provides "sabbatical" opportunities for young and mid-career professionals from various fields to explore the fields of social enterprise and venture philanthropy and to reflect on and apply their expertise to practical aspects of NESsT's work.

NESsT has hosted the following young/mid-career professionals as NESsTERs since the start of the program: