A Step Forward

Social Enterprise Ecosystems in the U.S.

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Social enterprise is no longer the promise of tomorrow. Over the past year, it’s clear the field has taken a step forward. Some of the top performing companies, like Beyond Meat and their record-breaking IPO this year, are social enterprises. Universities are rushing to add programs to support the growing wave of students demanding social entrepreneurship programming. Cities are rapidly expanding their support systems for founders.

This year’s Social Enterprise Ecosystems Report examines the ecosystems that build, develop, and catalyze these ventures. We’ve surveyed 624 social enterprise actors from around the country to understand what makes a great ecosystem. Our hope is that this report illuminates the opportunities and challenges in building a great ecosystem and serves as a tool for cities and regions across the country.

Using the four pillar framework, these top 21 responding cities are ranked based on the strength of their social enterprise ecosystems. Click on the below cities for a more detailed look at the data, including the scores and ranks for each city across the four different pillars.

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  1. 1

    Boston

    Massachusetts

    68.66

    Total Weighted Score

  2. 2

    San Francisco

    California

    67.84

    Total Weighted Score

  3. 3

    Seattle

    Washington

    65.03

    Total Weighted Score

  4. 4

    Minneapolis/St. Paul

    Minnesota

    62.19

    Total Weighted Score

  5. 5

    Denver

    Colorado

    61.55

    Total Weighted Score

  6. 6

    Austin

    Texas

    60.75

    Total Weighted Score

  7. 7

    Atlanta

    Georgia

    58.23

    Total Weighted Score

  8. 8

    Pittsburgh

    Pennsylvania

    57.21

    Total Weighted Score

  9. 9

    Baltimore

    Maryland

    54.10

    Total Weighted Score

  10. 10

    San Diego

    California

    52.81

    Total Weighted Score

  11. 11

    Chicago

    Illinois

    52.48

    Total Weighted Score

  12. 12

    Washington, D.C.

    District of Columbia

    52.10

    Total Weighted Score

  13. 13

    Raleigh

    North Carolina

    50.93

    Total Weighted Score

  14. 14

    New York

    New York

    50.46

    Total Weighted Score

  15. 15

    Los Angeles

    California

    48.00

    Total Weighted Score

  16. 16

    Miami

    Florida

    47.88

    Total Weighted Score

  17. 17

    Dallas

    Texas

    47.73

    Total Weighted Score

  18. 18

    New Orleans

    Louisiana

    44.66

    Total Weighted Score

  19. 19

    Philadelphia

    Pennsylvania

    41.72

    Total Weighted Score

  20. 20

    Detroit

    Michigan

    38.77

    Total Weighted Score

  21. 21

    Phoenix

    Arizona

    31.98

    Total Weighted Score

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  1. 1

    Boston

    Massachusetts

    19.78

    Total Weighted Score

  2. 2

    San Francisco

    California

    18.92

    Total Weighted Score

  3. 3

    Atlanta

    Georgia

    18.68

    Total Weighted Score

  4. 4

    Seattle

    Washington

    18.22

    Total Weighted Score

  5. 5

    Austin

    Texas

    16.73

    Total Weighted Score

  6. 6

    New York

    New York

    16.53

    Total Weighted Score

  7. 7

    Los Angeles

    California

    15.51

    Total Weighted Score

  8. 8

    Miami

    Florida

    12.27

    Total Weighted Score

  9. 9

    San Diego

    California

    14.72

    Total Weighted Score

  10. 10

    Baltimore

    Maryland

    14.58

    Total Weighted Score

  11. 11

    Denver

    Colorado

    14.25

    Total Weighted Score

  12. 12

    Chicago

    Illinois

    13.23

    Total Weighted Score

  13. 13

    Dallas

    Texas

    11.94

    Total Weighted Score

  14. 14

    Pittsburgh

    Pennsylvania

    11.87

    Total Weighted Score

  15. 15

    Minneapolis/St. Paul

    Minnesota

    10.48

    Total Weighted Score

  16. 16

    Raleigh

    North Carolina

    10.02

    Total Weighted Score

  17. 17

    New Orleans

    Louisiana

    9.39

    Total Weighted Score

  18. 18

    Detroit

    Michigan

    9.23

    Total Weighted Score

  19. 19

    Washington, D.C.

    District of Columbia

    9.13

    Total Weighted Score

  20. 20

    Philadelphia

    Pennsylvania

    8.17

    Total Weighted Score

  21. 21

    Phoenix

    Arizona

    6.08

    Total Weighted Score

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  1. 1

    Denver

    Colorado

    17.66

    Total Weighted Score

  2. 2

    Washington, D.C.

    District of Columbia

    17.03

    Total Weighted Score

  3. 3

    Boston

    Massachusetts

    16.93

    Total Weighted Score

  4. 4

    Minneapolis/St. Paul

    Minnesota

    16.73

    Total Weighted Score

  5. 5

    San Francisco

    California

    16.50

    Total Weighted Score

  6. 6

    Atlanta

    Georgia

    16.37

    Total Weighted Score

  7. 7

    Seattle

    Washington

    16.17

    Total Weighted Score

  8. 8

    Raleigh

    North Carolina

    15.67

    Total Weighted Score

  9. 9

    Austin

    Texas

    15.61

    Total Weighted Score

  10. 10

    Baltimore

    Maryland

    15.38

    Total Weighted Score

  11. 11

    Pittsburgh

    Pennsylvania

    15.38

    Total Weighted Score

  12. 12

    Chicago

    Illinois

    12.76

    Total Weighted Score

  13. 13

    Dallas

    Texas

    11.94

    Total Weighted Score

  14. 14

    San Diego

    California

    11.64

    Total Weighted Score

  15. 15

    Miami

    Florida

    11.34

    Total Weighted Score

  16. 16

    Philadelphia

    Pennsylvania

    10.45

    Total Weighted Score

  17. 17

    New Orleans

    Louisiana

    9.66

    Total Weighted Score

  18. 18

    New York

    New York

    7.80

    Total Weighted Score

  19. 19

    Los Angeles

    California

    7.51

    Total Weighted Score

  20. 20

    Detroit

    Michigan

    7.24

    Total Weighted Score

  21. 21

    Phoenix

    Arizona

    5.49

    Total Weighted Score

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  1. 1

    San Francisco

    California

    15.24

    Total Weighted Score

  2. 2

    Minneapolis/St. Paul

    Minnesota

    19.39

    Total Weighted Score

  3. 3

    Boston

    Massachusetts

    14.68

    Total Weighted Score

  4. 4

    New York

    New York

    11.52

    Total Weighted Score

  5. 5

    Philadelphia

    Pennsylvania

    12.33

    Total Weighted Score

  6. 6

    Chicago

    Illinois

    12.35

    Total Weighted Score

  7. 7

    Miami

    Florida

    11.09

    Total Weighted Score

  8. 8

    Seattle

    Washington

    16.82

    Total Weighted Score

  9. 9

    Washington, D.C.

    District of Columbia

    12.18

    Total Weighted Score

  10. 10

    Denver

    Colorado

    14.82

    Total Weighted Score

  11. 11

    New Orleans

    Louisiana

    11.21

    Total Weighted Score

  12. 12

    Pittsburgh

    Pennsylvania

    15.28

    Total Weighted Score

  13. 13

    Baltimore

    Maryland

    11.63

    Total Weighted Score

  14. 14

    Los Angeles

    California

    11.16

    Total Weighted Score

  15. 15

    Detroit

    Michigan

    12.23

    Total Weighted Score

  16. 16

    San Diego

    California

    12.92

    Total Weighted Score

  17. 17

    Phoenix

    Arizona

    12.72

    Total Weighted Score

  18. 18

    Dallas

    Texas

    11.24

    Total Weighted Score

  19. 19

    Austin

    Texas

    12.00

    Total Weighted Score

  20. 20

    Atlanta

    Georgia

    9.86

    Total Weighted Score

  21. 21

    Raleigh

    North Carolina

    14.26

    Total Weighted Score

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  1. 1

    New York

    New York

    14.60

    Total Weighted Score

  2. 2

    Washington, D.C.

    District of Columbia

    13.77

    Total Weighted Score

  3. 3

    Boston

    Massachusetts

    17.27

    Total Weighted Score

  4. 4

    Chicago

    Illinois

    14.13

    Total Weighted Score

  5. 5

    Denver

    Colorado

    14.82

    Total Weighted Score

  6. 6

    New Orleans

    Louisiana

    14.40

    Total Weighted Score

  7. 7

    Minneapolis/St. Paul

    Minnesota

    15.58

    Total Weighted Score

  8. 8

    Seattle

    Washington

    13.82

    Total Weighted Score

  9. 9

    Baltimore

    Maryland

    12.51

    Total Weighted Score

  10. 10

    San Francisco

    California

    17.19

    Total Weighted Score

  11. 11

    Philadelphia

    Pennsylvania

    10.77

    Total Weighted Score

  12. 12

    Pittsburgh

    Pennsylvania

    14.68

    Total Weighted Score

  13. 13

    Detroit

    Michigan

    10.08

    Total Weighted Score

  14. 14

    Austin

    Texas

    16.41

    Total Weighted Score

  15. 15

    Dallas

    Texas

    12.62

    Total Weighted Score

  16. 16

    Atlanta

    Georgia

    13.32

    Total Weighted Score

  17. 17

    San Diego

    California

    13.53

    Total Weighted Score

  18. 18

    Raleigh

    North Carolina

    10.98

    Total Weighted Score

  19. 19

    Miami

    Florida

    13.18

    Total Weighted Score

  20. 20

    Los Angeles

    California

    13.82

    Total Weighted Score

  21. 21

    Phoenix

    Arizona

    7.69

    Total Weighted Score

The Four Pillars Explained

The fuel of the ecosystem: the capital that makes impact possible. Sources of capital include seed funding, grants, and philanthropic and venture capital (representing both public and private sources). For the purposes of this report, we divided funding into the following three categories to capture the many ways social enterprises raise funds: public spending, private investment, and charitable giving.

The engine of the ecosystem: the people that turn ideas into action. People who drive social enterprises as team members, mentors, employees, and advisors. To grow, scale, and thrive, social enterprises rely on attracting top talent. This pillar is divided into university presence, talent, and civic engagement.

The fabric of the ecosystem: the unique characteristics of a region that help shape the experience of growing a business there. This includes everything from cost of living to how walkable a city is. Starting a social enterprise is one of the hardest things a person can do, but living in a city that affords its residents a high quality of life can make it a little easier. For the purposes of this report, we divided the quality of life pillar into economic and social mobility, affordability, health, and transportation.

The glue of the ecosystem: the networks, organizations, and public entities that provide and connect entrepreneurs to the resources they need. It is virtually impossible for social entrepreneurs to establish and sustain a business alone. To capture all of the entities that make social entrepreneurship possible, we divided the pillar into entrepreneurial activity; policy and regulations; intermediaries and networks; and arts and culture.