Anonymous donors gifted $10 million to UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business to support entrepreneurship opportunities and programs that teach and advise student founders.
The donation was allocated to three different programs on campus. While about 40% of the endowment’s annual earnings will go to UC LAUNCH, the remaining 60% will be split equally between the Berkeley Entrepreneurship Hub, or eHub, and the Student Entrepreneurship Program, or StEP.
“This generous gift to Haas will provide vital and lasting support for our entrepreneurship programs, helping us to double down on the human parts of entrepreneurship: creativity, collaboration, and community,” said Haas Dean Jennifer Chatman in an email statement. “The endowment also ensures that entrepreneurship opportunities at Berkeley are accessible to all of our students and not limited by background or prior experience.”
Rhonda Shrader, the executive director of the Berkeley Haas Entrepreneurship Program, said the donation will help address the school’s needs and the donors’ philanthropic goals.
UC LAUNCH is an accelerator for startups on UC campuses, providing support for startup projects that are in the early development stages. Students, faculty and alumni apply to be a part of a three-month-long accelerator program that helps them develop successful business models for up-and-coming startups.
StEP is a 10-week entrepreneurship program that assists students and staff in growing projects in the early stages of development. It offers themed sessions, a matching system to find cofounders and a showcase where students pitch to potential investors.
eHub is a resource for student entrepreneurs that helps connect students with mentors and resources on campus. The donation will specifically go to funding the eHub’s “navigators,” who match students with mentors and faculty who can assist students on their projects.
“The generous gift supports the student-facing eHub Navigator role and two previously unfunded but highly impactful student programs,” Shrader said in an email. “UC LAUNCH has been providing free (and equity free) advanced acceleration training for 10 years and Berkeley StEP for seven years.”
Out of all undergraduate institutions globally, PitchBook named UC Berkeley the top producer of venture-backed founders and the top producer of female entrepreneurs.
UC Berkeley has been the #1 school in venture-backed startups for three years in a row. With a number of resources around campus that support innovation and opportunities to pitch to investors, UC Berkeley pushes to remain a top producer of entrepreneurs.
“We are infinitely grateful to have a measure of financial stability so that we can reduce our dependence on students to help us secure sponsorships,” Shrader said in the email. “We’re also grateful to have to spend less time on external teaching and writing grants to fund our student programs—which means more time for working directly with students.”