Tarrson Social Venture Fellowship

The Tarrson Social Venture Fellowship provides funding and advising to graduating UChicago students or recent alumni who are committed to growing a startup that helps solve a social or environmental problem.

The Rustandy Center’s capstone social entrepreneurship resource, the fellowship supports entrepreneurs as they raise philanthropic or venture capital for their enterprises.

The Tarrson Social Venture Fellowship provides $25,000 each in funding and other support to graduating university students or recent alumni who are committed to growing a startup that helps solve a social or environmental problem. Recent Tarrson Fellows are accelerating volunteerism among young professionals, empowering women vendors in Kenya, tackling the compliance market, and using quantitative finance to help people and institutions do more good with their money.

In 2017, Ron Tarrson, MBA ’72 (XP-31), managing partner and director of Santa Fe, New Mexico-based Santa Fe Aero Services, provided the funding to create the Tarrson Social Venture Fellowship.

Part of the Rustandy Center’s Edwardson Social Entrepreneurship Program, the fellowship receives matching funds from John Edwardson, MBA ’72.

About the Fellowship

Funding and Coaching

The fellowship includes both a funding package and sustained coaching from the Rustandy Center:

Funding: Each person accepted into the fellowship (two maximum per organization) is provided with $20,000 in the form of a Simple Agreement for Future Equity (SAFE), which is paid out to an incorporated entity in quarterly (4) intervals of $5,000 over a one-year period with a separate $5,000 to support travel/technology/customer research/legal expenses. Fellows running a nonprofit organization receive the fellowship funds as a grant.
Coaching: Fellows benefit from a continued relationship with the Rustandy Center through coaching check-ins.

Who Can Apply

The fellowship accepts applications from Booth MBA students and non-Booth UChicago students who plan to work on their social or environmental startups as their main professional activity after graduation. Teams accepted into the Polsky Accelerator are eligible to apply. Applicants should have:

An incorporated (or soon to be) organization
A roadmap to launch and grow their product/service
A full-time commitment to their startup venture (minimum 40 hours/week)
Good academic standing, with a 2.33 GPA or better
A graduation date from July 2024 to June 2025

How to Apply

Applications for the 2025 Tarrson Social Venture Fellowship are closed. Applications typically open in June.

“We created the Tarrson Fellowship to provide financial and other supports to students who are committed to working on their startups full time after graduation. I’m proud to support the work of these talented, committed social entrepreneurs.”

— Ron Tarrson, ’72 (XP-31)

2025 Tarrson Fellows

Tarrson Fellows have gone on to achieve impact in every area of the social sector, from expediting the pre-trial preparation experience to supporting emerging social entrepreneurs in sub-Saharan Africa.

Daniel Buckman, MBA ’25, Total Values LLC

Total Values LLC
Total Values is an impact portfolio construction platform for investors, philanthropists, and advisors. By uniting quantitative finance with rigorous, evidence-based impact evaluation, it lets users set personalized objectives, forecast counterfactual impact for any investment or grant, and build optimized portfolios aligned to their goal hierarchy.

Manda Bwerevu, MPP ’25; Judith Nguli, MPP ’25, Kuleta

Kuleta
Kuleta /kooˈlehːta/ is a purpose-driven e-commerce platform connecting women vendors in Kenya with US consumers seeking high-quality, culturally rich nonperishable products. Meaning “to bring” in Swahili, Kuleta bridges the gap between underrepresented women vendors in Africa and a rapidly growing global market for ethically sourced African goods, turning small stalls into international storefronts. We empower vendors through a full-service model, beginning with our incubation and training program: Kuza Dada, end-to-end logistics support, integrated mobile-money payouts, and storytelling-driven branding that resonates with buyers seeking authenticity and impact. Unlike mass exporters or generic platforms, Kuleta allows customers to shop with intention while women vendors gain consistent income, business skills, and resilience against climate and economic shocks. By leveraging a B2B2C model, Kuleta is building a scalable brand that democratizes global trade, drives gender equity, and redefines commerce as a tool for inclusion and empowerment while meeting global demand trends.

Ram Mukund Kripa, Papaya Privacy Co.

Papaya Privacy Co.
Papaya Privacy Co. builds AI compliance agents for CMOs, automating privacy and accessibility testing. We’re tackling the $25 billion compliance market, where current automated tools miss most violations (less than 40 percent), and the only alternative relies on slow, expensive manual QA. Our agents interact with products like real sighted and blind users and map findings directly onto ADA, WCAG, GDPR, and more than 20 US state privacy laws, uncovering more than 90 percent of issues.

Harriet Spears, MBA ’25, Emerging Donor Alliance

Emerging Donor Alliance
Emerging Donor Alliance is a nonprofit member community whose mission is to accelerate charitable giving and volunteerism among young professionals. Launching in Chicago, Emerging Donor Alliance builds city-based cohorts of young people (ages 22–35) and empowers them to become more informed, engaged citizens through community, skill building, and collective action. Emerging Donor Alliance was a finalist in the 2025 John Edwardson, ’72, Social New Venture Challenge.

Stories about Our Tarrson Fellows

SNVC team Demi shows off their composting prototype

Rustandy Center Announces Six 2023 Tarrson Fellows

Social entrepreneurs focus on composting solutions, last-mile shipping models, e-learning video games, and more.

Rustandy Center - Careers

Meet the Rustandy Center's Newest Tarrson Fellows

Social entrepreneurs focus on blood shortages, battery life, and access to mortgages.

Rustandy Center - Alumni

Rustandy Center Awards Tarrson Fellowships to Rising Social Entrepreneurs

The fellowship provides funding and mentoring to graduating university students and recent alumni who are committed to growing a startup that helps solve a social or environmental problem.

Social Innovation

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