{"id":4369,"date":"2015-01-22T16:31:23","date_gmt":"2015-01-22T22:31:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?p=4369"},"modified":"2015-05-15T18:52:57","modified_gmt":"2015-05-15T23:52:57","slug":"chicago-startups-aim-to-make-impact-on-social-issues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/chicago-startups-aim-to-make-impact-on-social-issues\/","title":{"rendered":"Chicago startups aim to make impact on social issues"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By Laura Furr<\/p>\n<p>Chicago\u2019s premiere social entrepreneurship program, Impact Engine, on Wednesday unveiled its new crop of startups aimed at resolving issues from student safety to the demand for recycled electricity.<\/p>\n<p>For the third time since 2012, the 16-week accelerator program, partnered with the city\u2019s tech-incubator, 1871, mentored entrepreneurs driven to create social change and a profit at the same time.<\/p>\n<p>Jessica Droste Yagan, the program\u2019s new CEO, said since Impact Engine\u2019s start it has graduated 15 companies, which have earned $2.5 million in revenue.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cImpact investing is a real thing. It has a presence in Chicago,\u201d Yagan told 275 community members and investors who had gathered. \u201cWe have really built a sizeable and energizable community.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Community members and investors at Wednesday\u2019s demo day said they felt this energy.<br \/>\n<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Jaclyn Schiff, the communications director for the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, attended the event and said she was excited by the potential impact.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI didn\u2019t realize that there was such a dynamic and vibrant social enterprise sector [in Chicago],\u201d Schiff said. \u201cI think some of these companies are really tackling some very big social issues and can potentially knock it out of the park.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>To learn more about each company, click through the interactive StoryMap below.<\/p>\n<p><iframe src=\"\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/cdn.knightlab.com\/libs\/storymapjs\/latest\/embed\/index.html?url=https:\/\/0264f5e31889c3176c25d0af02dd613c13ae1d90.googledrive.com\/host\/0B5niqJJjoF_vdmVRd2w1em15YlU\/draft.json\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"100%\" height=\"800\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Laura Furr Chicago\u2019s premiere social entrepreneurship program, Impact Engine, on Wednesday unveiled its new crop of startups aimed at resolving issues from student safety to the demand for recycled electricity. For the third time since 2012, the 16-week accelerator program, partnered with the city\u2019s tech-incubator, 1871, mentored entrepreneurs driven to create social change and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":4370,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,28,243],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4369","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-general-interest","category-winter-2015"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Chicago startups aim to make impact on social issues - Medill Reports Chicago<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/chicago-startups-aim-to-make-impact-on-social-issues\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Chicago startups aim to make impact on social issues - Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Laura Furr Chicago\u2019s premiere social entrepreneurship program, Impact Engine, on Wednesday unveiled its new crop of startups aimed at resolving issues from student safety to the demand for recycled electricity. For the third time since 2012, the 16-week accelerator program, partnered with the city\u2019s tech-incubator, 1871, mentored entrepreneurs driven to create social change and [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/chicago-startups-aim-to-make-impact-on-social-issues\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-01-22T22:31:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-05-15T23:52:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2015\/01\/X1024Impact.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"683\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"laurafurr\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"laurafurr\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/chicago-startups-aim-to-make-impact-on-social-issues\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/chicago-startups-aim-to-make-impact-on-social-issues\/\",\"name\":\"Chicago startups aim to make impact on social issues - 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