Miller Center for Global Impact

08/27/2026

This past fiscal year, 220 mentors gave more than 10,000 hours to social enterprise partners, support valued at $4.3 million. More than 90 of them have stayed on as Miller Center mentors for five years or more.

That kind of staying power shows up in results. Take Swati Sinha, who started mentoring Manikstu Agro founder Biren Sahoo during our 2024 accelerator cohort. She didn't step away when the program ended. She stayed on through Manikstu's 2025 In-Residence program and remains an active mentor today, helping the team sharpen its impact story, strengthen its go-to-market strategy, and navigate major growth decisions. Manikstu is transforming goat farming into a reliable livelihood for smallholder households across rural India, and this year it received catalytic financing from Miller Center Capital and Beneficial Returns to scale that model.

For Swati, mentorship works because it isn't transactional. As she describes it, the best mentors create space for honest conversations and hard questions, the kind of feedback that helps founders grow as leaders.

That's the thread running through all 440 mentoring engagements this year: relationships built on trust, sustained well past a single program, that give social entrepreneurs the guidance to grow into what they're capable of.

Read more about our mentorship program in our 2026 Annual Report: https://www.canva.com/design/DAHFEexGlYg/8slHnVXI9L6FpanIlGhsNQ/view

08/26/2026

We've spent nearly 30 years working alongside social entrepreneurs. This work was just recognized by TIME and Statista, who selected Miller Center for their 2026 list of America's Best Incubators and Accelerators, recognizing 80 programs across the country.

The ranking was based on a multi-stage research process that included alumni feedback, track record analysis, and expert recommendations. That kind of recognition doesn't happen without the entrepreneurs who trusted us with their businesses and the mentors who kept showing up, cohort after cohort, because they believe in what these founders are building.

We're proud of this moment, and even more proud of the people behind it: the social enterprise partners still doing the hard work of building something lasting, and the mentors, partners, and staff who've spent decades showing up for them.

See the official list:

TIME and Statista name the 80 best incubators and accelerators in the U.S.

08/20/2026

Our 2026 Annual Report, titled Choosing Connections, covers a lot of ground, and every section tells its own part of the story.

Entrepreneurs building ventures that are reshaping their communities. Mentors showing up year after year with the kind of guidance that only comes from lived experience. Impact investors asking hard questions about what it really costs to do this work well. Students and faculty bringing fresh thinking and academic rigor into the mix. Partners expanding what's possible by joining forces across borders.

Our work is vast and there is much to discover. We appreciate you taking the time to explore the report: https://www.canva.com/design/DAHFEexGlYg/8slHnVXI9L6FpanIlGhsNQ/view?utm_content=DAHFEexGlYg&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=uniquelinks&utlId=h6db096d400 #18

08/19/2026

Our 2026 Annual Report is here, and we couldn't be more excited to share it! 🌟

Choosing Connection is more than a year in review. It's a look at the entrepreneurs, mentors, students, and partners who came together this year to build something bigger than any one of us could alone, and the real, measurable impact that came from it.

Inside, you'll find the numbers behind our programs, stories from the people living them, and a look at what's next as we work toward our 2030 goals.

Take a look, and see what connection built this year.

https://www.canva.com/design/DAHFEexGlYg/8slHnVXI9L6FpanIlGhsNQ/view?utm_content=DAHFEexGlYg&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=uniquelinks&utlId=h6db096d400 #18

08/13/2026

is a regional network connecting purpose, capital, and action to drive systemic change across Latin America and the Caribbean 🌎

This September, they're bringing that mission to life at Impact Minds 2026: Connecting Us, gathering leaders, investors, philanthropists, and changemakers working to close the gap between good intentions and lasting impact.

Miller Center Executive Director Brigit Helms will be there presenting our True Cost of Impact-First Investing research and hosting an interactive workshop tackling a hard question: why does the valley of death in impact investing persist, even when the capital, the entrepreneurs, and the will all exist?

Instead of a traditional panel, this session builds its own agenda in real time, starting with the barriers the room identifies as most urgent.

Link in bio to learn more 🔗
www.impactmindsconference.com

08/12/2026

News from Our Network 📣

➡️ Bare Necessities Featured in ELLE India
Bengaluru-based Bare Necessities, led by founder and CEO Sahar Mansoor, was featured in ELLE India for its Forever Dispenser, a refillable roll-on deodorant case made from recycled chip packets, believed to be India's first refillable natural deodorant.
🔗 https://elle.in/beauty/elle-exclusive-we-refill-our-coffee-why-not-our-deodorant-the-beauty-conversation-bare-necessities-wants-us-to-have-12200254

➡️ Simón Raises $1M Seed Round
Simon, an AI-powered assistant that lives inside WhatsApp to help frontline workers learn and improve performance in the moment, has closed a $1M seed round. The round was backed by the corporate venture arm of a regional Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) company alongside Potencia Ventures, elea, and Fundamental Venture Studio, the venture studio that built the company. Simón is already used by more than 20,000 frontline workers across 20+ companies in FMCG, retail, and financial services.
🔗 https://app.dealroom.co/news/note/sim-n-raises-1m-seed-to-scale-its-whatsapp-ai-assistant-across-latin-america

➡️ CropSafe Secures New Investment from A to Z Impact
CropSafe Agro Services, a Nigerian social enterprise partner that reduces post-harvest losses across the shea, palm kernel, and soy value chains, has secured a new investment from impact-first investor A to Z Impact to support its agricultural processing and export work.
🔗 https://news.atozimpact.org/why-we-invested-in-cropsafe-26634967d3fa

➡️ PitchAbility 2026 Comes to San Jose
On September 25, Vista Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired will host PitchAbility 2026, a pitch competition and expo dedicated to accessibility technology for people who are blind or have low vision. Miller Center entrepreneurs, mentors, faculty, and students working in accessibility or assistive technology are invited to attend, exhibit, or compete.
🔗 https://vistacenter.org/pitchability-vista-international-pitch-competition-2026/

08/10/2026

We need the full spectrum of capital. The question is how we blend it — and for whom.

In her latest Impact Finance Bulletin for Pioneers Post, Laura Joffre makes the case that impact-first investing doesn’t mean shunning finance-first investors. We agree. Grants, catalytic capital, impact-first investment, and market-rate capital all have a role to play in financing impact at scale.

Her piece also surfaces a tension that resonates strongly with our True Cost of Impact-First Investing research: too often, blended finance is structured around making opportunities work for returns-seeking investors, rather than starting with what social entrepreneurs actually need to grow their impact.

Our research suggests that reaching entrepreneurs and markets traditional capital often overlooks has a real cost. The answer isn’t to choose impact-first or finance-first capital. It’s to recognize what different kinds of capital are best equipped to do — and blend them in ways that put impact and entrepreneurs at the center.

We appreciate Pioneers Post continuing to dig into these questions and bringing our True Cost findings into the conversation.

Read Laura’s thoughtful piece: https://www.pioneerspost.com/news-views/20260729/impact-finance-bulletin-pursuing-impact-first-investing-doesn-t-mean-shunning

Read our True Cost of Impact-First Investing report: https://millercenterglobal.org/the-true-cost-of-impact-first-investing/

To operate at scale, impact investing needs the whole "spectrum of capital", from grants to institutional investment – the key is in the blending, to achieve a mix that works for social entrepreneurs: Laura Joffre reflects on her conversation with FASE's Markus Freiburg.

08/06/2026

Miller Center Capital is helping expand access to solar-powered cold storage in Ghana through catalytic financing for Koolboks, in partnership with fund manager Beneficial Returns.

Koolboks designs and distributes solar-powered refrigeration units for markets where grid electricity is unreliable or expensive. Each freezer can save close to $1,045 a year in electricity costs while cutting nearly a metric ton of CO2 emissions annually.

This financing will help Koolboks fulfill a 500-unit freezer order for FanMilk's last-mile vendor network in Ghana, following a strong 50-unit pilot last year. The result: more micro-entrepreneurs can access reliable, affordable cold storage to grow their businesses.

Read the full announcement: https://millercenterglobal.org/miller-center-capital-invests-in-koolboks-to-expand-solar-powered-cold-storage-for-micro-entrepreneurs-in-ghana/

08/05/2026

Once a cohort graduates, are entrepreneurs still finding the support they need when they need it? Miller Center spent months talking with entrepreneurs across East Africa and Latin America who have participated in our programs to find out what more they're looking for, and the answer led to a new pilot: Impact Tables, small dinner gatherings designed for conversations that outlast the meal itself.

The first ran in Nairobi in July, hosted by Maziwa CEO Sahar Jamal. The second ran in Mexico City, hosted by Toroto co-founder David Camhi. A third is coming to Bangalore this fall, organized by BEMPU Health CEO Ratul Narain.

The early results say a lot about what actually holds a community together long after a program wraps.

Learn more about our Impact Tables from Sperry McQuaid, Suuley Huchard, and Karen Sumie Runde: https://millercenterglobal.org/beyond-the-accelerator-what-keeps-entrepreneurs-connected/

08/04/2026

Our executive director Brigit Helms has a new piece in Forbes tackling something every mission-driven organization eventually runs into: how do you keep your most skilled volunteers around for the long haul?

Her answer comes straight from Miller Center's own mentor network, where dozens of executives have stayed engaged for a decade or more. The piece centers on Dick Haiduck, a mentor who's stuck around for nearly eight years, and traces his commitment back to a simple shift: matching people to work they're actually great at, and clearing away everything that makes talented volunteers quietly check out.

It's a sharp read for any leader managing volunteers, mentors, or advisors of their own.

Check it out: https://www.forbes.com/councils/forbesnonprofitcouncil/2026/07/30/why-the-best-volunteer-programs-look-more-like-partnerships/