Our Story
We help founders find financial freedom and create a positive legacy.
The Polk Institute Foundation (Pi) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to training, mentoring, and incubating social entrepreneurs — founders building businesses that prioritize People and Planet alongside Profit.
We work with founders at every stage: pre-revenue dreamers in our Incubator, established operators in our Accelerator, seasoned CEOs in our Legacy Cohort, and Boomer business owners in our Silver Tsunami program. Across every program, the Triple Bottom Line is the standard.
Our faculty are practitioners — not theoreticians. They have built, scaled, sold, and invested in mission-driven companies. That experience is what our cohorts inherit.
Our Mission
Serving Social Entrepreneurs to Help Make the World a Better Place.
Our Vision
To Serve 1,000 Social Entrepreneurs by 2032
Our Core Values
- CHARACTER: Doing the right thing when no one is watching.
- COLLABORATION: Entrepreneurship is a team sport.
- CULTIVATION: If coachable, we can teach entrepreneurship to anyone.
- FAILURE: Risking failure as a normal part of the journey to grow and find success.
- GRIT OVER QUIT
For the last 34 years, Gary Polk has been a Collegiate Educator and a Business consultant. During this time the college student debt has escalated to $1.8 Trillion. This is why the Polk Institute Foundation (Pi) offers its workshops tuition-free.
Pi is a 501c3 nonprofit that is an Innovation-Driven Enterprise (IDE). Pi offers a robust program designed to develop fundable CEOs who will build sustainable businesses.
We foster Social Entrepreneurship also known as the Triple Bottom Line – PEOPLE+PLANET+PROFIT. We believe that this is not a zero- sum scenario as all three can coexist. We believe that this is a better and more ethical and sustainable business model
PI PROGRAM
Ready to build a business that changes the world?
Join our tuition-free Incubator, Accelerator, or Silver Tsunami Cohort and learn from practitioners who have built what they teach.