About Us

About Us

The Helene & Grant Wilson Center for Social Entrepreneurship was created in 2005 to serve the nonprofit community and Pace University. Devoted to honing the risk-taking spirit and managerial skills of nonprofit organizations, the center was launched with a pledge of $5 million from Helene and Grant Wilson, Boston-area entrepreneurs and philanthropists whose philanthropic endeavors convinced them that entrepreneurial management can help social ventures increase their impact. 

Mission:
The mission of the Wilson Center for Social Entrepreneurship is "to promote social change through entrepreneurship." The Center furthers this mission by serving students, social enterprises and nonprofit organizations with education, research, communication, and advisory service.

About Helene & Grant Wilson

The Wilson center was launched with a $5 million pledge from Helene and Grant Wilson, Boston-area entrepreneurs and philanthropists whose philanthropic endeavors convinced them that entrepreneurial management can help social ventures increase their impact. 

Helene Wilson is a 1966 Pace graduate who majored in marketing and has founded and still operates gift and home accessory stores on Cape Cod. Her late husband, Grant Wilson, was a 1963 MIT engineering graduate who became a private investor. He organized, co-founded, or invested in dozens of businesses in fields ranging from manufacturing and real estate to the Internet, including Cape Air in Hyannis, Massachusetts, and Carlisle Plastics in Minneapolis. One of his smaller ventures involved financial backing for MagicFire, a Natick, Massachusetts firm that puts microchips in fireworks to precisely synchronize their explosions with music.

The Center recognizes the Wilson family's interest in entrepreneurial philanthropy directed at improving the leadership and managerial effectiveness of nonprofit organizations. To manage their philanthropy, the Wilsons established Carlisle Services, which later became the Carlisle Foundation. The foundation supported innovative projects aiding alcohol and substance abuse prevention, domestic violence prevention, the homeless, and education, almost exclusively in New England. Helene Wilson has lent her support to causes including the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation's Campaign for a Landmine Free World, for which she and her husband sponsored a private benefit performance by Grammy Award winner Emmylou Harris.