Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE)

Students in nfte programs learn how to develop a business plan and how to market their business concept. Through the process of creating their own business idea, nfte students build business and academic skills, are introduced to new career paths, and learn about a wide range of jobs and occupations. They also develop their entrepreneurial mindset. Nfte students learn to think and act like entrepreneurs, demonstrating skills such as initiative and self-reliance, flexibility and adaptability, critical thinking and problem solving, communication and collaboration, creativity and innovation, opportunity recognition, and future orientation. The entrepreneurial mindset, together with the skills nfte teaches, prepares youth for college and career success. Nfte partners with schools, community groups, and youth development organizations to bring Entrepreneurship education to diverse learners. Our work focuses primarily on middle and high school students in under-resourced communities. We target public school districts with free and reduced lunch (frl) eligibility rates of 50% or more, and most of our partner schools have frl rates of 70-80%. The nfte model leverages classroom teachers to deliver the nfte curriculum. The benefit to nfte is that teachers are paid by their respective school districts. The challenge for the organization's contributors and assessors is recognizing the economic value of those teachers is excluded, in tax reporting, from the measurement of expenditures related to program efforts. The teachers are essential to meeting the organization's mission, thus the economic value must be factored into any assessment of the organization to have a true comparison with other organizations.