Programs

Halcyon’s work in the social enterprise space is rooted in three not-so-big bets:

1. In the long run, impact-driven businesses will outperform their traditional counterparts.
2. Impact-driven businesses represent a powerful opportunity to drive equity and inclusivity in the workplace and in society.
3. Impact-driven business is the only viable future for capitalist society, and represents the easiest path forward to solving the problems of the 21st century.

But we don’t make a bet then stand back and see what happens – we dive into realizing it through a set of programs and initiatives designed to fundamentally alter the social enterprise ecosystem to be strong, equitable, and sustainable. What started in 2014 with the Halcyon Residential Fellowship has grown also to include a range of fellowship programs, original research, and funding vehicles for social entrepreneurs.

Halcyon fellow engaging with guest of Incubator Cohort Kickoff

Halcyon Incubator Fellowship

What differentiated this program in its early days was that it was among the first to offer a suite of support mechanisms for impact-driven founders without taking any equity in participating ventures.

Today, a growing number of programs meet that criteria, but few offer the same robust set of benefits Halcyon fellows receive: 14 weeks of rent-free housing at Halcyon’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., workspace, a $10,000 stipend, legal and consulting support, mentorship, training in Investment Readiness, Business Fundamentals, Impact, and Leadership,  But more than anything, the Incubator offers fellows a community of people who will see them, challenge them, and support them.

Learn More

Intensive Fellowships

If our flagship Halcyon Incubator fellowship is extensive, our fast-growing tailored intensive programs offer the same opportunity to be a part of the Halcyon community, but through participation in focused experiences designed for specific groups of entrepreneurs.

International intensives introduce entrepreneurs from abroad to the U.S. market and our network of investors and supporters, while other intensives allow us to hone Incubator programming for different demographics or sectors. Programs provide training in Investment Readiness, Business Fundamentals, Impact, and Leadership , Each program is custom designed to position its Fellows for success.

 

Learn More

Investing

We get to know our fellows well, and we never stop asking them: What do you need? What they tell us is backed up by our own research, which says that there’s a need for more and better investment mechanisms for social entrepreneurs, particularly women founders and founders of color.

In 2019 we launched the Halcyon Angels, a regional angel network investing in impact-driven businesses and dedicated to growing the pool of angel investors to be more diverse and more compelled by the promise of social enterprise.

While that’s the only project we’re sharing publicly right now, watch this space as we continue to invest (pun intended) in evolving the funding side of the social enterprise ecosystem, meeting a need for our fellows and other entrepreneurs like them.

Learn More

Research

As social enterprise ecosystems across the country and beyond have taken shape, Halcyon played a key role in tracking that evolution through our three-edition Social Enterprise Ecosystem Report. First published in 2016, the report combined publicly-available data and a national survey of social entrepreneurs and the people who support them, to provide a comprehensive picture of the state of social enterprise in cities across the U.S.

Learn More