It all started with a rather simple idea...

Founders John Whitehead, Judson (Sandy) Bemis
and Robert Price felt they had an opportunity and a responsibility to assist non-profit organizations in continuing their important work.

Today, nearly twenty-five years later, the National Center for Social Entrepreneurs mission is to increase the effectiveness and financial self-sufficiency of the nonprofit sector by helping nonprofits think and act in a more entrepreneurial manner.

We provide nonprofit organizations a new strategy for dealing with market realities, combining the passion of a social mission with a more strategic approach to today's current marketplace.

Our programs enable them to find and keep a productive synergy of doing good (mission) while finding innovative ways to pay for it (money). Through an extensive array of tools, people and processes, the organizations we work with learn how to:

1. Identify and expand on the most effective programs, eliminate unnecessary or duplicative programs and selectively add new services to meet community needs
2. Enhance skills in research, planning and marketing, to improve their ability to evaluate opportunities, make informed decisions and serve more clients more effectively
3. Earn more income from fees, contracts and product sales reducing their overall reliance on "granted" revenue from government and philanthropy agencies and allowing them to achieve greater level of financial sustainability

Throughout our organizations history, thousands of nonprofits have attended our introductory seminars, and literally hundreds have benefited from our on-site services - here's what people are saying:

"PathFinder was like opening the window and letting the light in"
- Art Fine, Executive Director - Jewish Family Service

"Historically we've managed with constraints. Now we manage with possibilities!"
Daniel Abrams, Executive Director - Talking Talons Youth Leadership

"The value of the process is we have really institutionalized an entrepreneurial attitude in everything we do. That's more valuable than any particular project."
Sitara Harvey-Cook - Executive Director, YWCA