About Us

The National Association for Community College Entrepreneurship (NACCE) is our nation’s leading co-creator and distributor of resources to transform underserved communities through community college engagement. NACCE represents nearly 400 community and technical colleges and more than 3,000 faculty, staff, administrators and presidents who serve over 3.3 million students.

Our Mission

To engage members through entrepreneurial thinking and innovative action.

Our Philosophy

Membership is the heart of what we do.

Our Vision

Equity and prosperity for all.

President & CEO Message

NACCE Adds Value to its Members by:

  • Maintaining the largest network of entrepreneurial leaders and educators in North America.
  • Focusing on advancing diversity, equity, inclusion & belonging as an accelerator of entrepreneurship.
  • Co-creating new entrepreneurial resources for classrooms and communities with members and partners.
  • Working with policy makers to advocate for entrepreneurship education at all levels of government.
  • Offering thought leadership through books, a quarterly magazine, articles, a podcast, and conferences.
  • Providing professional development to faculty, administrators and center leaders on an ongoing basis. 
  • Leading change through our Entrepreneurial College of the Future intitative launched in 2022. 

NACCE Supports Member Colleges Financially by:

Providing funding awards to NACCE member colleges to deliver programming and to co-create new programs with corporate and foundation partners. From 2016 to 2023, NACCE has awarded over $17 million to member colleges.  

Examples of NACCE funding awards made to nearly 100 member colleges:

  • Partnering with the VIL STEM Achievers program since 2017 program serving over 5,000 students annually.
  • Providing funding and project management for several initatives focused on creating makerspaces.
  • Developing new entrepreneurship education programs for K-14 in the Appalachian region of the U.S.
  • Seeding the launch of Everyday Entrepreneur (EE) program and fund at 60 colleges and counting!
  • Offering a total of $450,000 in Pitch for the Skilled Trades awards for 2022 and 2023. 
  • Working with leading corporations like Verizon, IBM, Intuit, HP and Amazon to connect corporate social responsibility to community colleges.
  • Pioneering the delivery of intellectual property curriculum to community colleges across the nation.
  • Incubating aligned emerging organizations like the Rural Community College Alliance (RCCA) and MakerUSA.

The Birth and Evolution of NACCE

In 1995, Andy Scibelli, president of Springfield Technical and Community College (STCC), in Springfield, MA, commissioned a feasibility study to determine if a small business incubator aligned with the expertise of the college could foster business growth in the region. Moving into 2024, NACCE is poised to continue to grow and scale as one of the leading nonprofit higher education associations in the United States.

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