National Association for Community College Entrepreneurship, Inc. (Nacce)

The National Association for Community College Entrepreneurship, known as NACCE, keeps its office at Crescent Green in Cary. It is a nonprofit that supports entrepreneurship teaching and programs at community colleges around the country, and its members are those colleges and the people running the programs inside them.

Membership is the center of what it does, and members connect through webinars, an events calendar, news and an annual conference. The stated mission is to engage members through entrepreneurial thinking and innovative action. It also runs the EcoMap project, a clickable ecosystem map of resources for inclusive entrepreneurship.

What to know

• The story begins in 1995 with a feasibility study on a small business incubator at Springfield Technical Community College.
• Between 2017 and 2024, NACCE awarded more than $35 million to member colleges.
• Nearly 100 member colleges have received some of that funding.
• The Entrepreneurial College of the Future initiative launched in 2022.
• Pitch for the Skilled Trades awards totaled $600,000 across 2022 through 2024.