Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship

NFTE activates the entrepreneurial mindset and builds startup skills in youth from under-resourced communities to ensure their success and to create a more vibrant society.

Vision: Every person owns their future. Purpose: Lead the global movement for equitable access to

Goal One: Strategic Goal 1 Improve Organizational Effectiveness by reorganizing regions to increase impact, reach, and sustainability

Goal Two: Strengthen Communications and Advancement through investments and improvements in NFTE’s Communications, Marketing, and Development functions

Goal Three: Launch an Enterprise Division by and implementing an income-generating strategy dedicated to building vendor partnerships with community colleges, workforce development programs, and global programs.

Last year, the organization invested in professional development and made strong progress with its DEI and culture goals. The team continued its DEI work in partnership with Central California Environmental Justice (CCEJ), an organization that we engaged to facilitate sessions focused on Activating Conflict, Growth and Trust Building within NFTE. CCEJ led specific training sessions for NFTE’s Senior Leadership Team in addition to guiding the full staff team through creating Affinity Groups and a series on Conflict Training. NFTE staff participated in a series titled “Activating Conflict for Growth and Trust Building.” This training was conducted in three sessions covering Communicating in Emotion, Communicating in Conflict, and Recognizing and Interrupting Microaggressions. In addition, NFTE’s Senior Leadership Team participated in the “Leadership for Racial Justice” series, and members of the Employee Resource Group received training titled “Racial Affinity Group Facilitation.”

From March 2020 through much of 2021, most of NFTE’s partner schools operated in largely hybrid or virtual modalities throughout the school year. This meant that NFTE needed to take extra steps to make sure our teachers — our frontline workers —had what they needed to teach their NFTE classes effectively. Our efforts included: 1. amplifying our course content with recorded videos of key lessons in our curriculum taught by our master educators and lead teachers; 2. deploying our master educators and staff team to offer enhanced training and guidance to our teacher corps, including tips on how to make the most of our online and digital resources; and 3. preparing low-tech options, such as paper packets of NFTE lessons, in cases where schools/districts continue to struggle with technological needs. In addition, in spring 2020, NFTE activated a new technology platform to implement our traditionally in-person business plan competition series virtually. Because NFTE’s curriculum was already housed in a strong learning management system, we were able to continue providing resources and support to students and teachers. Our team was resilient and adaptable as we transitioned training and support to virtual modalities, conducted spring competitions online, and even managed to bring back high-impact summer camps in every region through a mix of in-person and virtual implementations. In many instances we were able to take advantage of the virtual environment to engage volunteers and community members who would have struggled to attend in-person events. In keeping with our values, NFTE’s response to the pandemic was significantly entrepreneurial. That is most clearly illustrated by our creation of Career Relaunch, an asynchronous course that we used to support adults affected by the pandemic and later pivoted to be an integral part of our enterprise expansion as the rebranded Start It Up!