Tarrson Social Venture Fellowship

The Tarrson Social Venture Fellowship is a capstone social entrepreneurship resource that provides funding and sustained coaching to graduating University of Chicago students or recent alumni who are committed to growing a startup that helps solve a social or environmental problem. The fellowship supports entrepreneurs as they raise philanthropic or venture capital for their enterprises. Each person accepted into the fellowship receives $20,000 in the form of a Simple Agreement for Future Equity (SAFE), paid out to an incorporated entity in quarterly intervals of $5,000 over a one-year period, plus an additional $5,000 to support travel, technology, customer research, and legal expenses. Fellows running nonprofit organizations receive the fellowship funds as a grant instead of SAFE. The program includes sustained coaching from the Rustandy Center through check-ins to help fellows develop and grow their ventures. Created in 2017 by Ron Tarrson, MBA '72, with matching funds from John Edwardson, MBA '72, the fellowship has supported social entrepreneurs working across various sectors including composting solutions, e-commerce platforms empowering vendors, privacy compliance technology, and nonprofit member communities promoting charitable giving.