UNE alumnus Steven Boughton receives grant to accelerate environmentally-conscious businesses nation-wide
Steven Boughton, a 2009 graduate from UNE’s Environmental Studies program with a minor in history, recently won a $50,000 grant from the Small Business Association (SBA) through its Growth Accelerator Fund competition for his company, Great Turning Advisors (GTA). The news was announced by the SBA at the first White House Demo Day on August 4, 2015.
GTA is a company that brings together the people, knowledge and resources to accelerate for-profit social business models. Its goal is to drive global, social and environmental change by supporting ethically-minded entrepreneurs.
GTA was one of 80 Growth Accelerator Fund grant winners chosen from a pool of hundreds of applicants. With the $50,000 award, the company will launch a Social Business Accelerator fund to invest in early-stage companies that are focused on solving social and environmental problems.
As founder of the company, Boughton credits his time at UNE with shaping his vision for accelerating responsible businesses across the U.S.
“Having come-of-age in a generation with unprecedented access to information and technology, then being thrust into the Great Recession, we’re eager to find purpose through impact,” Boughton says. “And though some may be mistrustful of traditional business practices, we’ve also learned that activism alone cannot solve the problems that entrepreneurs can. It’s time to start recognizing that we are the system, and thus can work within it to make a real difference.”
Though the company is headquartered in New Jersey, its team will travel across the country to speak at universities, work directly with social entrepreneurs and cultivate a new community of investors that are committed to changing the world.