Innovation+

Yesterday CTEF members sat down with Dennis Cavner and Suzi Sosa to learn about an "innovative" new organization called Innovation+. A special project under Austin Community Foundation, the impetus for Innovation+  was identifying the three things that a NPO really needs to grow and thinking about how those can be provided.

Innovation+ says that non-profits need:

1. Growth capital (because currently most of the capital in non-profits is project-based)
2. A mind-share of smart, creative people
3. Human capital to move things forward.

Taking cures from the venture capital work, Innovation+ looks for programs that are on the cusp of transforming from a small non-profit to a larger-scale organization and have high growth potential. They look for organizations that are doing a innovative service, that have proven success, and have the potential to grow given the necessary monetary and human capital.

Even though they are not exclusively considering education non-profits, they have chosen College Forward as their first partner. By doing the due-diligence that is required whenever a grant or a donation is made to an organization, Innovation+ has vetted the organization's model. They have identified College Forward as a viable investment and will proceed to work as something of an agent of their behalf. The idea behind Innovation+ isn't to provide scale funding themselves, it is to help their partner non-profits to find this funding. Through existing connection and extensive networking, Innovation+ intends to become champions for the partners, shopping the idea to people and companies that can provide human and/or monetary capital.

There are other models for this kind of thing. Social Venture Partners is an example that existed in Austin in the 1990s. Under that model, a group of organizations would donate to a communal pot and then distribute the funds to promote growth. Unlike that model, Innovation+ intents to be the link that connects motivated, well organized, strategically versed non-profits with folks that want to help, but maybe don't have the resources to do the research and find a group to support. 

One of their great hopes is that by helping non-profits to grow and scale their work (College Forward has expanded into Houston and plans to continue bringing their model to more cities in the near future) that they can transform the non-profit world from fragmented to united. 

"Non-profits don't have to be little local things where the wheel has to be recreated in every city."  - Susi Sosa, RGK Center/Innovation+

HOW CAN YOU HELP?

Organizations like CTEF Members can play a special role in helping Innovation+ succeed. One of the reasons this model holds promise is because unlike an organization asking for donations themselves, they can present a complete package or investment deal that has been thoroughly researched and reviewed and is considered to be a good investment. As area funders, we have worked with and written grants to many potential Innovation+ Partners. By providing testimonials for those non-profits we lend credibility to the deal and that helps to attract investors. Contact us at info@centraltexasedfunders.org if you'd like to get involved and we can connect you with Innovation+.

-- Kate Stark, CTEF Graduate Intern

(For more information about Innovation+ check them out in the Austin Business Journal)