Social Entrepreneurs Take Center Stage at CGI 2024

Supporting Startups from Pitch to Powerhouse

StartingUpGood
StartingUpGood Magazine
4 min readSep 19, 2024

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Source: https://www.clintonfoundation.org/clinton-global-initiative-september-2024-meeting/

The annual meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) focuses on what’s working to drive global progress.

While world leaders attending the event often grab headlines, it’s the social entrepreneurs — with their innovative solutions and passionate commitment to sustainable development — who truly deserve the spotlight.

CGI has a three-pronged, year-round curriculum for supporting social entrepreneurs, which includes:

  • CGI University, for undergraduate and graduate students at the ideation stage of social entrepreneurship;
  • CGI Fellowship, for established and emerging leaders ready to implement their ideas; and
  • CGI Greenhouse, for growth-stage entrepreneurs aiming to scale their innovative technologies and business models.

Read the May 2024 press release for the full list of 25 CGI Fellows from the inaugural 2024 class. We hope some of these promising Fellows will be featured at this year’s CGI Annual Meeting.

Select members of CGI’s 2024 Greenhouse cohort will have the opportunity to present their solutions at three upcoming sessions of the annual meeting. At last year’s meeting, three startups were awarded grants totaling $75,000 after pitching their ideas.

We look forward to:

Innovation in Job Creation: The Business Case for Inclusive Economic Opportunity

Monday 23 September | 1:30 pm — 2:45 pm (ET)

Historically marginalized workforce populations represent significant untapped global talent. Social enterprises around the world have led the way in developing innovative business models which meaningfully and profitably engage those most excluded from the labor market. Yet, there is still tremendous scope and opportunity for corporations, governments, and cross-sector partners to capitalize on this latent workforce brimming with potential to tackle barriers to employment while addressing global skill shortages. This session will showcase pioneering leaders who are reimagining approaches to skills development, job creation, and market-based investments that support inclusive economic opportunities for all.

Featured Social Entrepreneurs:

Food as a Tool to Empower Communities and Drive Climate Smart Solutions

Tuesday 24 September | 11:00 am — 12:15 pm (ET)

Globally, enough food is produced to feed the world population 1.5 times over, but nearly 30 percent of the world’s population experiences moderate to severe food insecurity. The current food system is unsustainable, inequitable, and in need of innovative, climate-smart solutions to tackle the interconnected problems of hunger, poverty, and climate vulnerability. This session will convene global thought leaders and social entrepreneurs pioneering solutions that maximize existing food production, leveraging both traditional knowledge and technological innovations to develop new opportunities to create a more equitable, sustainable, and resilient global food system.

Featured Social Entrepreneurs:

Supporting the Social Enterprise Ecosystem

Tuesday 24 September | 3:15 pm — 4:30 pm (ET)

The social enterprise business model is rapidly gaining traction on a global scale. Today, social enterprises make up approximately 3 percent of businesses worldwide, generating over $2 trillion in annual revenue and creating more than 200 million jobs. There is immense economic potential to be realized when governments, corporations, and philanthropic organizations partner with social enterprises that put people and the planet first. From businesses that scale solutions to make health care more equitable to initiatives that improve education access for underserved populations, there is great opportunity to collaborate with social enterprises to collectively advance impact goals and catalyze transformative societal change. This session will bring together impact entrepreneurs as well as public and private sector intrapreneurs to explore collaborative partnerships, funding opportunities, and comprehensive solutions that enable social enterprises, especially those founded by traditionally marginalized entrepreneurs, to scale and thrive.

Featured Social Entrepreneurs:

Additional Participants:

Learn More

The 2024 CGI Annual Meeting will take place in New York City from on September 23–24. Register for free to watch sessions live, and see a full agenda and participant list, on the CGI website.

Check out our list of the top Global Goals Week events we’re paying attention to this year and our checklist for getting the most out of UNGA79.

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Check out SDGCounting for the latest news on tracking the progress of the Sustainable Development Goals. #SDGs #GlobalGoals.

Disclaimer: This article uses various LLMs to edit and proof-read. All content for the article was hand-curated and checked for quality.

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StartingUpGood
StartingUpGood Magazine

Supporting fresh entrepreneurial approaches to do good in the world. Check out our magazine: https://medium.com/startingupgood