August’s Coachella Valley Spotlight recipient: Caravanserai Project

August's Coachella Valley Spotlight recipient is local nonprofit Caravanserai Project.

Caravanserai Project is a hybrid social impact venture striving to identify, mobilize and energize mission-driven leaders. The group supports entrepreneurial journeys of building sustainable and relevant ventures, for-profit and nonprofit alike.

Its work focuses on the development and implementation of accountability systems,
supplying specialized skills and futures-thinking strategies and bringing together networks of people to help ideas flourish.

Caravanserai Project will use the $25,000 Coachella Valley Spotlight grant from the H.N. & Frances C. Berger Foundation to fund its upcoming SEED Lab. It's an eight-month pre-accelerator for social impact startups in partnership with UCRiverside Extension.

The funding will contribute towards administrative expenses and the monthly one-on-one coaching and mentoring sessions for the entire SEED Lab cohort with up to 12 participants.

The Fellows attend more than 90 hours of cohort training and
monthly one-on-one mentorship and coaching sessions during the program. After completing the program, the fellows will be awarded a Specialized Certificate from UC-Riverside Extension.

Since 2018, when the program was launched, 50 entrepreneurs have
graduated from SEED Lab Pre-accelerator. Click HERE to apply.

• 95% of the SEED Lab fellows are women and/or representing minority groups 
• 100% of the SEED Lab fellows come from diverse backgrounds, which traditionally are not represented in the entrepreneurship sector 
• Many of the SEED Lab graduates have access to external funding or investing opportunities such as the Dream Fund