The Swartz Center Social Enterprise Prize

Compete to Solve Social Challenges with Your Entrepreneurial Ideas!

Ready to create a company that makes an impact on the world's biggest challenges? 

The Swartz Center Social Enterprise Prize is a competition at Carnegie Mellon University designed to empower students to develop entrepreneurial solutions for social and environmental challenges. Open to both for-profit and nonprofit ideas, the competition runs within the McGinnis Pitch Competition, with submission deadlines from January to March and culminates in a final pitch event, on Monday, March 16, 2026.

A social enterprise is an organization—either nonprofit or for-profit—that prioritizes social, environmental or community-oriented goals alongside financial performance. Its success is typically measured by a concept known as the triple bottom line, which evaluates not just financial profit (economic), but also social and environmental impact. The triple bottom line framework encourages businesses to be accountable for their broader influence on society, considering their impact on people, planet, and profit. Social enterprises often align their missions with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which are a collection of 17 global goals set by the UN to address pressing issues such as poverty, inequality, climate change, environmental degradation, peace and justice by 2030.

For more information please contact Swartz Center EIR Leah Lizarondo at leahlizarondo@cmu.edu.

Why join?

• Prizes!
  • Undergraduate Prizes: $5,000 (1st place), $2,500 (2nd place)
  • Graduate Prize: $10,000
• For-Profit & Nonprofit Ideas Welcome!
  Whether you want to create a nonprofit/NGO or mission-driven for-profit startup with a triple bottom line (profit, planet, people) this is your opportunity!
• Workshops, Mentorship & Pitch Experience!
  Participate in workshops, get mentorship, and refine your social enterprise ideas to create real-world impact!
• Path to the $1M Hult Prize!
  Compete for a chance to automatically advance to the US Nationals of the prestigious Hult Prize – the ultimate global competition for student social entrepreneurs!

Social Enterprises You Know

Examples of nonprofits operating as social enterprises include World Central Kitchen, which addresses hunger; Acumen, which focuses on poverty alleviation through innovative finance; and Pencils of Promise, dedicated to providing quality education. For-profit social enterprises like CMU’s own Mill and Duolingo. Mill promotes responsible consumption and Duolingo makes education accessible to all. Perhaps the most famous social enterprise is Patagonia, which aligns its business strongly with climate action or Tom’s Shoes, which popularized the Buy One, Give One model. Other examples can be found in this list of B-Corps - B-corp certification requires a company to measure its social and environmental impact.

The prizes are $5,000 first prize/$2,500 second prize for undergraduate teams and $10,000 for graduate teams, incentivizing participants to compete at global levels like the $1M Hult Prize for student social entrepreneurs. This initiative seeks to elevate social enterprise within the CMU community, fostering innovation, social impact and expand opportunities for students making a difference through entrepreneurship.

Requirements & Guidelines

Eligibility Details

Track Details

Deliverables: Round 1

Deliverables: Round 2

Deliverables: Round 3

Confidentiality & Intellectual Property Guidelines