The Hult Prize is a start-up accelerator for social entrepreneurship which brings together the brightest college and university students from around the globe to solve the world’s most pressing issues.

The annual initiative is the world’s largest crowdsourcing platform for social good and one of the planet’s leading forces for good.

Participants compete in local events organized on campuses around the world or apply online to partake in the regional finals which are held in five international cities around the world, including: Boston, San Francisco, London, Dubai, Shanghai and on-line.

Winning start-ups from each city move onto the Hult Prize Accelerator for the summer before attending the global finals, which are hosted by former President Bill Clinton. Collectively, more than ten thousand students, representing more than 150 countries around the world participate in the Hult Prize and spend over 2 million man-hours on solving the world's most pressing issues.

Through crowdsourcing, training, mentorship and funding, the Hult Prize seeks to build and launch the next wave of social entrepreneurs.

Yes. Each year, a pressing social challenge is selected by President Clinton and becomes the theme for the respective cycle. The "President's Challenge" provides a specific and measurable objective that each participating team is intended to solve through the creation of a sustainable social enterprise.

In March, selected participants are invited to pitch their start-ups that specifically address the challenges identified in the case.  A clearly defined framework is also provided to ensure your idea contains the necessary qualities and mandates to be an innovation breakthrough.

Traditional non-profit organizations struggle to make a telling contribution despite having a potentially powerful solution to a problem. Not because they lack commitment or funding, but because they face execution hurdles that can only be solved by leveraging a wide range of skill-sets and an on-the-ground understanding of the situation.

Overcoming execution hurdles is what colleges and universities teach their students, specifically business schools, since the ability to execute is critical in business. Furthermore, business schools are home to a wide variety of students from different industries and countries that collectively have a very broad knowledge base. Harnessing this resource through crowd-sourcing innovative ideas and solutions is a technique that is poised to create radical breakthroughs in the social space.

The Hult Prize runs regional competitions in five cities around the world as well as an online “wildcard round,” a summer accelerator program, and a final pitch-off at the 2018 Hult Prize Global Finals. Your journey begins with a call to action by President Clinton in late September. Applications for participation in the Hult Prize Ivy event are now open, and teams will compete during the INCmty festival November 18, 2016. The top two teams will advance to one of the five regional finals worldwide, in either Dubai, London, Shanghai, San Francisco, or Boston. Regional winners then move on to a boot-camp style accelerator, where you will further work on the development of your social enterprise. At the conclusion of the accelerator your idea will be "investment ready" in the form of a company. Once complete, you will pitch your final start-up at the Hult Prize Global Finals, where the winner will receive USD1 million in seed capital to scale their enterprise. Interested participants can apply via the Apply Now link on this site.

Hult is the family name of Swedish born entrepreneur and billionaire, Bertil Hult, one of Europe’s leading entrepreneurs who founded EF Education First, the largest private education company in the world. Hult International Business School (formerly the Arthur D. Little School of Management) is a global business school with campuses in Boston, San Francisco, London, Dubai and Shanghai. It is named after Bertil Hult. Hult is ranked in the top 20 business schools in the United States and in the top 100 in the world, including number one for international business. Today it has over 3000 students enrolled across its campuses, from over 130 different countries. The Hult family provides the annual USD1 million in seed capital awarded to the winner of the annual Hult Prize.

The recent financial crisis has taught us the importance of practicing sound business ethics. The Hult Prize is dedicated to teaching college and university students from around the world that the skills they learn can be applied for-good as well as for-profit. Hult International Business School is a natural host for such an initiative. Not simply because it has a global campus network that can very effectively bring together students from all over the world, but also because many of the 130 countries that Hult students hail from face global challenges in the areas of energy, finance, hunger, disease and education; challenges that require solutions which are broad in scope, yet detailed in implementation.

The winning student team and their new start-up. Each year the Hult Prize provides one million dollars in seed capital to the very best start-up for social good. The prize money is seeded into the newly created company, which will be run by the student team who came up with the idea.

The Hult Prize is the brainchild of Ahmad Ashkar, a Hult International Business School alumnus who developed the concept whilst still a student. Ahmad had the idea after seeing Charles Kane, the CEO of One Laptop Per Child, describe some of the challenges his organization faced during a speech in class. Ahmad is currently the CEO of the Hult Prize and continues to bring innovation and thought leadership to the social impact sector.