The Empower Program for Social Entrepreneurship administers a competitive fellowship program for current Tufts undergraduate and graduate students who demonstrate a thriving commitment to social entrepreneurship. 

The Empower Fellowship provides grants for students to launch social enterprises and stipends to fund internships and applied research related to social entrepreneurship in international or local community development. Students who are accepted to the Fellowship will join the Empower community of current and past Fellows at Tufts, which encourages collaboration, mentorship, and the promotion of social entrepreneurship on campus and out in the world. 

Empower offers funding for three categories of Fellowships:

Empower Fellowship | Social Entrepreneurship Grant

The Empower Program will fund individuals who want to become social entrepreneurs, start their own social enterprise or continue working on their social ventures. Social entrepreneurial initiatives and social enterprises are organisations that use market and business mechanisms to achieve social goals, or mobilize people and communities through innovative means to achieve social goals. Empower does not give out seed capital for such ventures. Although not exclusive, examples of what Empower is willing to fund include travel, accommodation and board costs for students developing ventures. 

Empower Fellowship | Internships

Empower funds and places students in internship positions with social entrepreneurs and social enterprises all over the world. All grants go towards individual cover of expenses such as airfare, housing and transportation for internships outside the Great Boston area over the Summer break of each academic year.

There are three kinds of internships eligible for an Empower Fellowship:

• Schwab Foundation Network Internships: The Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship is a complementary foundation to the World Economic Forum that supports soical entrepreneurs all over the world. The Foundation was created with the purpose to promote entrepreneurial solutions and social commitment with a clear impact at the grassroots level. Through the partnership with Empower, the Schwab Foundation has agreed to give preferential treatment to Tufts students to obtain internships with organisations in their network. Please see The Schwab Foundation's website after January 10, 2012 to browse the updated profiles of their global network of social entrepreneurs. Please also see "Schwab Foundation Fellowships" at left for more information about this fellowship.

• Partner Organisation Internships: In addition to Schwab, Empower has established direct partnerships with several social enterprises around the world with whom we directly place students in internship positions. The list of partner organisations can be found here and our featured partner here. Applications to partner organizations are highly encouraged, as Empower has selectively cultivated these relationships to provide our current and future Fellows with enriching and meaningful opportunities. Students applying to this type of fellowship are applying directly for both placement and funding. 
  

• Like-Minded Organisation Internships: Empower will fund unpaid internships with peer organisations that are in line with the principles of the Empower Program. Students are required to apply to the internship position independently. Once accepted, they are eligible to apply to join the Empower Fellowship and receive funding. 

Empower Fellowship | Applied Research Grant

To obtain the Fellowship for applied research, applicants must be prepared to demonstrate that their project is a market analysis, impact assessment or evaluation for program development of a social venture. Applicants are required to work with or for a host organisation and must have a letter of affiliation stating that their work is needed for any of the above. It is imperative to have a tangible deliverable at the end of the research period, preferably a report to the organisation. The deliverable cannot be limited to a thesis, though applicants are encouraged to use the data from the project for their thesis.