Venture Academy

Help amazing young people accomplish incredible things!

This year for Give to the Max Day, Venture Academy is fundraising to support student entrepreneurship of all kinds. At Venture, young people take charge of their learning in the classroom, make change in our school and world, and grow skills and opportunities for the future. At Venture, our central mission is building entrepreneurs by developing the independence, scholarship and leadership of young people.

Your gift allows Venture to teach and coach entrepreneurship skills, provide transformational entrepreneurship experiences, recruit entrepreneurial mentors and invest in promising student-launched businesses and changemaking projects.  

About Venture Academy

Venture Academy is a tuition-free, college- and career-preparatory Minneapolis public charter school that serves more than 300 diverse young people in grades 6-12. Our vision is for every young person to become an entrepreneurial leader who improves the world around them. At Venture, we believe that inspiring passionate, purposeful entrepreneurs and changemakers is not only an aspirational goal after graduation. While at Venture, students take charge of their learning through a rigorous, personalized and self-paced academic program, real-world professional internships and hands-on opportunities to take leadership, make change and practice entrepreneurship.

Some Venture Student Entrepreneurship/Changemaking Milestones:

• A team of Venture middle school students entered and won the Startup Weekend EDU entrepreneurship competition, beating 10 adult teams as they launched a student-friendly fundraising web platform.

• Two Venture student teams pitched their businesses at the U. of MN’s Carlson School of Business.

• Five Venture students helped lead the Minnesota contingent of the March For Our Lives in Washington.

• Four Venture students helped build a statewide network of 12 schools supporting student leadership and voice.

• Four Venture students led workshops for school leaders at the MN Department of Education and the U. of St. Thomas.

• Two Venture students were among only 56 students leading school transformation selected nationwide to participate in the SparkHouse gathering in Washington.

• Venture has the largest number of Latino and African-American students of any Minnesota school participating in the YMCA’s Minnesota Youth in Government Model Assembly and Model United Nations programs.

Donate by U.S. Mail

If you prefer to send in your donation via U.S. Mail, please make your check payable to Venture Academy and mail to:

Venture Academy

Attn: Elise Wehrman

315 27th Ave. SE

Minneapolis, MN 55414

Questions? Contact Jon Bacal at jbacal@ventureacademies.org or 612-695-2396

For more information about supporting Venture Academy, visit our website at www.ventureacademies.org

Check out our video to hear from just a few of Venture’s young entrepreneurs: