The Curriculum

PresenTense’s unique offering is its summer Institute for social entrepreneurs, an unrivaled six-week bootcamp for innovators specially geared for individuals interested in impacting the world through sustainable ventures. The Institute, located in Jerusalem, provides a center for entrepreneurs featuring events, professional development and networking opportunities, as well as a fellowship program for select innovators. Each fellow receives:

•    Residency in Jerusalem
•    State-of-the-art facilities to enable efficient and effective work
•    Skill-building courses to teach core entrepreneurial skills and proficiencies
•    Mentorship opportunities from members of the fellow's field
•    Workshops and lectures by leading minds in the Jewish world
•    Access to a wide network of potential supporters, partners, and customers
•    Direct guidance from the PresenTense staff and invaluable support from fellow innovators

The Institute’s pedagogical process was developed with the needs of innovators in mind, providing those chosen for fellowship with practical tools to launch seed-stage ventures, based upon sound business models and eventually full business plans. As such, it rests on four legs:

Over the course of the six weeks of the Institute, innovators are trained along a curriculum developed with clear deliverables in mind, structured along the lines of a business plan. Innovators learn about, and then produce: 

1.    Description of service
2.    Assessment of strategic context
3.    Nonprofit business model structured around value and impact proposition
4.    Budget
5.    Executive Summary including 
6.    Pitch and promotional materials

This curriculum, bolstered by the community-aspect wherein their peers are tackling the same challenges, improves the chances of venture success—creating an applied research and development environment that inspires additional innovation and investment.

Follow-On Services

Fellows who have successfully completed the PresenTense Institute curriculum are provided one year of follow-on advising, whereby a trained member of the PresenTense staff continues to provide advice and support through its Venture Development services to the innovator and their venture. This support is bolstered by mentors and coaches organized by the PresenTense Network, who are field specific. 

These Venture Development services provide benefits beyond consulting: by connecting the fellows to a larger network of innovators addressing similar problems, the venture community increases chances of success through the learning community developed.