Home
Introduction
Officers
Member Resources
Projects
Join/Contact Info
Members
Business Advisory Board
Donor Companies

Introduction: What is SIFE?

The Organization
Founded in 1975, Students In Free Enterprise (SIFE) has grown to become one of the largest collegiate organizations in the world. SIFE Teams are active on more than 1,500 college and university campuses in 37 countries around the world. In the United States, approximately 800 schools are enrolled in SIFE.

Working together as a team, and through the mentoring of a faculty advisor(s), SIFE students apply their classroom experiences to develop and implement educational outreach programs that teach individuals in their communities the principles of market economics, entrepreneurship, personal financial success and business ethics.

The challenge to SIFE Teams is not simply to inform, but also to empower–to help their targeted audiences reach their full potential through a better understanding of the principles of free enterprise. Individually, SIFE Teams are improving the quality of life and standard of living for members of their communities. Collectively, the focused effort of hundreds of SIFE Teams and the thousands of faculty, students and supporting community leaders driving these teams, has created a positive and sweeping force for change that impacts the lives of millions and is literally changing the world.

The Individual SIFE Team
SIFE Teams are organized on individual college and university campuses. There are intentionally very few rules or procedures established by SIFE World Headquarters for how these teams are organized and structured. The few rules that do exist can be found in the "Participating in SIFE" section. Questions that a SIFE Team may have that are not addressed in that section, such as how many faculty advisors can a team have, which students are eligible to participate, how often does a team need to meet, etc., are all left to the discretion of the individual SIFE Team to answer.  There are many ways to organize and operate a SIFE Team.

Every college and university campus is as unique as the community it serves, thus this flexibility allows each school to structure its SIFE Team in a manner that best fits its faculty, student and community needs. Each SIFE Team has complete freedom to put in place rules and procedures to govern its own activities, beyond those outlined in this handbook, so long as they are consistent with the SIFE
Code of Conduct.

This same flexibility applies to each team’s educational efforts. The only parameters that SIFE World Headquarters places on a team’s educational outreach programs is that they should be designed to teach one of the following four subjects:

1) Market Economics
2) Entrepreneurship
3) Personal Financial Success Skills
4) Business Ethics

Beyond this, questions as to how many projects teams choose to do, which audiences they target, whether they design original educational material or use pre designed material, etc., are all left to the discretion of each team.

A set of "best practices", and suggestions for organizing a SIFE Team can be found in the SIFE USA Training Manual, which should be used as an accompanying document to this handbook.  The SIFE USA University Relations staff is also available to meet with teams individually and can provide personal consultation to teams as they organize themselves and develop their educational outreach projects.

The SIFE Philosophy

Vision: Helping people achieve their dreams through free enterprise education.

Mission: To provide college and university students the best opportunity to make a difference and to develop leadership, teamwork and communication skills through learning, practicing and teaching the principles of free enterprise.

Leadership Philosophy: "People support what they help create." Our students work as teams, compete as teams, learn to value each team member and learn to be team leaders.

Teaching Philosophy: "Tell me and I will forget, show me and I might remember, involve me and I will learn." Our students learn more by teaching others and they teach more through the use of hands-on learning activities.

Community Service Philosophy: "Give me a fish, I eat for a day; teach me to fish and I eat for a lifetime." We encourage SIFE students to learn that the best way to help people in the long run is to equip and inspire them to use their natural talents to the best of their abilities.

We believe that by working together as teams to teach the principles of free enterprise, SIFE students are improving the quality of life and standard of living for millions of people - literally changing the world. Specifically, SIFE Teams teach:

1. How free markets work in the global economy.
2. How entrepreneurs succeed by identifying a market need and then profitably producing and marketing a product or service to fill that need.
3. The personal, entrepreneurial, communications, technological and financial management skills needed to successfully compete.
4. Practicing business in an ethical and socially responsible manner that supports the principles of a market economy.

We believe that in a market economy a business cannot succeed in the long run without practicing good business ethics, honesty and integrity towards their customers, associates, shareholders and communities.

We believe that a market economy cannot achieve its full potential and succeed in the long run unless it is based on the rule of law, protection of property rights and the enforceability of contracts.

The SIFE World Headquarters will follow the guiding values and principles listed below in all of our interactions with SIFE's customers, which include students, faculty advisors, colleges and universities, donors, board members and SIFE employees. We will treat all people with respect, dignity and fairness. We will act with integrity, honesty and trust. We will foster an environment in all of our interactions and events that encourages teamwork, accountability, personal growth and enjoyment. We will continually strive for improvement. We will seek and accept changes as necessary for success. We will value innovation and responsible risk-taking. We will reward and recognize the contributions of all of our customers.