In late 2008, the Lewis Charitable Foundation, founded by the ever philanthropic Alan and Harriet Lewis, committed 10.8 million dollars to Babson College. It can be said that the Lewises have consistently expressed an interest in the relationship between Entrepreneurship and Social Values, as can be seen through their sponsoring of the Spirituality and Management Conference at Babson. Despite having no previous connection to Babson (none of the members of the Lewis Family have attended Babson), the Lewises decided to come to an agreement, now formally known as the Lewis Initiative, with Babson College.

The initiative (known as such to keep people from characterizing it as a program) is said to be the brainchild of one of the great pioneers in the field of Social Entrepreneurship: Professor Natalie Taylor. Her vision was to have an initiative that would integrate social entrepreneurship into the core curriculum while supporting faculty research, providing for the development of new case and course materials andoffering multiple opportunities (internship, fellowship etc.) to not only students, but also alumni.

In the spring of 2007, a team consisting of Professors Taylor, Mike Caslin and Candida Brush along with alumni Eric Graham worked on the first draft of a proposal that, with the help of former President Brian Barefoot and current President Leonard Schlesinger, would eventually become what we now know as the Lewis Initiative. The Lewis Foundation was swayed to commit this substantial sum to Babson, mainly because of a proposition which would stated that Babson would fully integrate social entrepreneurship not only into the undergraduate but also the graduate curriculum. A sample of the courses offered would include: Social Entrepreneurship by Design, Living the Social Entrepreneurship Experience, Environmental Entrepreneurship, The Enlightened Entrepreneur etc. Furthermore Alan Lewis was completely behind Babson’s strategy of promoting entrepreneurial thought and action for people, planet and profit outcomes.

 
A year on, the Lewis Initiative is now headed by Dr. Mark Albion (joined the Babson team in February 2009), the Director of External Affairs, whose formal responsibilities include external relations and fundraising. The other major player is Mary Gentile (joined April 2009) who is mainly involved in expanding and extending the case brand of values along with spreading entrepreneurial action.

When questioned on tangible results that have directly been brought about through the Lewis Initiative, President Schlesinger replied “the energy on campus.” While short-term results may be hard to measure, clear, long-term goals have not been stated. This is perhaps due to the fact that there are over fifty faculty members involved in the initiative with a say as to which direction the initiative should take. Only time will tell as to the extent of the results of this initiative.

The author would like to acknowledge the tremendous help that was given to him by the following people: President Schlesinger, Dr. Mark Albion and Professor Candice Brush, without whom this article could not have been written.