Social entrepreneurship has received a great deal of attention in recent years. Scholars constantly debate of the meaning of the term and the direction of the field. This paper explores literature written between the years 2010 \u2014 2015 in an effort to understand the current state of social entrepreneurship and gain insight as to the direction it is headed. This paper looks at definitions, characteristics, geographical differences, legal designations, and major themes such as social enterprise, social innovation, & social value as well as the implications for performance measures in an attempt to understand the broad concept that is social entrepreneurship.

This thesis examines the marketing efforts of Arizona Microcredit Initiative (AMI), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit run by Arizona State University students. The mission of AMI is to empower and education underserved entrepreneurs in greater Phoenix through microloans up to $5,000, free consulting and free business education workshops. Included is an analysis of past marketing efforts, research on potential solutions and recommendations for future marketing strategy.

My thesis is an experiment on the influence of new methods and the public opinion. The compelling question is: If there are animal rescue operations that obtain the ability to function fully, increasing revenue and the number of animals they save daily, then why is euthanasia still utilized as a means of population control within other shelters? Instead of our shelters progressing in a direction that eliminates euthanasia, there is a number of recently innovated shelters that are uprising today with this dreadful sequence to fulfill vacated cages, once reached capacity— euthanize, replace the deceased, and repeat. This is a global issue that can be eliminated by mocking the success of no-kill shelters in existence today.

Social enterprises strive to tackle social problems, improve the lives of the people around them and help create a sustainable environment. Three specific enterprises will be analyzed to illustrate the differences between management styles, mission, financials and overall successes. There are numerous social enterprises in the southwest of the United States of America, some show more success than others, but what separates them? What commonalities do some of these enterprises share that allow them to be more successful than the rest? Is there a common denominator for enterprises to follow that will allow them to have success financially as well as accomplish their goals to better the community around them? Free Arts for Abused Children or Arizona, Seed Spot and Goodmans, we are able to better distinguish what factors allow enterprises to succeed. Due to the nature of social enterprises being able to be qualified as different types of organizations, i.e., company with shareholders, nonprofit organizations, etc. it is difficult to pin point a concrete model social enterprises should follow today. However, a finding that made all three of these social enterprises successful were their governance and ownership structures. Each enterprise consisted of a board that helped the enterprise stay on track with their given mission. Boards are also responsible for making major decisions that can impact the organization as well as being responsible for fundraising and making various financial decisions. After analyzing their structures, it was evident that all three enterprises consisted of strong governance structures. Although enterprises may not be able to follow a distinct model in order to be successful, they are able to place a board in control that aligns with the social enterprises mission and has a variety of knowledge that allows the board to make sound decisions. Keywords: social enterprise, management, governance, success, mission, financials

This creative project is a collection of profiles focused on Arizona nonprofits and refugees. The profiles share stories of refugees, volunteers, employees and others involved in the community serving refugees. Nonprofits are a vital resource for refugee resettlement. These organizations offer services to support refugees as they transition into new communities. Some services include: housing, English language learning, cultural orientation, job placement, medical treatment, education, and farming. Each of these programs support resiliency for refugees and for the communities in which they live. We Are Resilient was created first, to show the important role nonprofits have in serving refugees. Second, to connect people to a few of the stories and experiences within the Arizona refugee community. And third, to build understanding of the strength refugees bring to communities of Arizona and by extension the country. Visit weareresilientaz.com to learn more.

This creative project aimed to combine knowledge, qualifications, and experience in networking and marketing to host a live music event. As a social media industry employee, an avid concertgoer, and a digital marketer, I felt sufficiently able to complete this task. The process included working within the Barrett budget to secure a venue and acts with the option of paid marketing for the event. Once I secured The Graduate Hotel and three acts— bands Study Habit and Moose Titans and DJ/emcee Malcolm Alexndr—it was time to publicize the event. I found a photographer and organized a photo shoot then created social media profiles and a website with these photos. In total, the attendance was roughly 100 people, and the night was a smash success.

Keywords: event planning, social media, music

The 284 residents of the rural community of Cooper Landing, Alaska are subject to many health risks. Cooper Landing is home to a large population of older adults whom suffer from a disproportionate physician to population ratio. Limited rural health care infrastructure and poor physician to population ratios are not conducive to primary health care implementation. Limited access to primary health care is linked to vast health disparities in rural communities like Cooper Landing. Preventive care and healthy lifestyle incentives have been largely overlooked as viable alternatives to primary health care access. In Cooper Landing, implementation of such incentives has proved to be either underutilized or unsuccessful by the private, public, and nonprofit sectors. To remedy this, the Rural Alaska Wellness Project (RAWP), a nonprofit organization, carries out its mission to promote health and wellness by providing a community resource for preventive care in Cooper Landing, Alaska. RAWP intends to increase the availability of the Cooper Landing School's gymnasium for community use, donate fitness equipment, implement TeleHealth initiatives, and host annual health fairs through grant funding, generous donations, and fundraising activities.

Over the span of little more than a decade, Phoenix Comicon has grown from its inception and unknown status to a nationally recognized event drawing 75,501 attendees in 2015.  Using serious leisure and specialization theory, ethnographic research reveals the formation of individual identities and engagement methods with this sub-cultural phenomenon.   In this case study research, seven interview participants provided in-depth accounts of their interests, experiences, and involvement with Phoenix Comicon.  These reports demonstrate a high level of recognition with theory components, yielding a total 329 markers across all interview transcripts.  The results match theory limitations, in that, participants may be engaged in serious leisure independent of length of involvement.  However, long-term participation is linked to potential for deeper investment in a leisure activity and participants reporting greater personal fulfilment are associated with serious leisure principles such as: significant effort, occasional adversity, and durable benefits.

This research explores and deepens our understanding of an element of arts infrastructure in the United States: the arts incubator, an organizational form or programmatic initiative that exists at the intersection of artistic production, entrepreneurship, and public policy. The study is a qualitative cross-case analysis of four arts incubators of different types: Arlington Arts Incubator, Intersection for the Arts, Center for Cultural Innovation, and Mighty Tieton, situated within the context of the literature of arts incubators, business incubator evaluation, and a theoretical framework for understanding entrepreneurship in the US arts and culture sector.

The research opens the black box of incubator operations to find that arts incubators create value for client artists and arts organizations both through direct service provision and indirect echo effects but that the provision of value to communities or systems is attenuated and largely undocumented. Arts incubators, like many small arts organizations, tend to look retrospectively at outputs rather than at the processes that convert inputs to tangible impacts, or means into ends. This is an issue not relegated only to the arts and culture sector; business incubators share some of these tendencies. Despite these issues, arts incubators remain a potentially impactful tool of cultural policy if their processes and activities align with their strategic goals and those processes and activities are assessed formatively and summatively.

This dissertation sought to understand how leaders in a public-private strategic alliance collaboratively address complex community problems. The study responded to the gap in academic research of leadership and public relations in alliances to solve complex social issues, as well as the scant scholarly attention to alliance leaders' communications with stakeholders. Its findings corresponded to framing theory, stakeholder theory, SWOT (strengths/weaknesses/opportunities/threats) theory, complexity theory, and the subtopic of complex leadership -- all through the lens of public relations. This investigation culminated in the introduction of the C.A.L.L. to Action Model of Community Engagement, which demonstrates the confluence of factors that were integral to the alliance's success in eliminating chronic homelessness among veterans in Maricopa County, Arizona -- Communication, Alliance, Leadership, and Leverage. This qualitative case study used the method of elite or in-depth interviews and grounded theory to investigate the factors present in a community engagement that achieved its purpose. It served as a foundation for future inquiry and contributions to the base of knowledge, including 1) additional qualitative case studies of homeless alliances in other communities or of other social issues addressed by a similar public-private alliance; 2) quantitative methods, such as a survey of the participants in this alliance to provide triangulation of the results and establish a platform for generalization of the results to a larger population.