Earlier this month, Boulder Startup Week wrapped up its ninth consecutive year, once again showcasing a community that both innovates and embraces a #GiveFirst mentality. This year, organizers included a new Social Impact track comprising nine events catered toward community innovators outside the traditional tech startup realm.
By Matt Zwiebel
Director, Pledge 1% Colorado
Part of our job at Pledge 1% Colorado is centered around bridging the gap between local for- and nonprofit communities. Our core focus is helping early-stage startups incorporate philanthropy into their business models – but sometimes, we get to showcase the entrepreneurial impact of the nonprofit community on our county, and beyond.
Earlier this month, Boulder Startup Week wrapped up its ninth consecutive year, once again showcasing a community that both innovates and embraces a #GiveFirst mentality. This year, organizers included a new Social Impact track comprising nine events catered toward community innovators outside the traditional tech startup realm.
Pledge 1% Colorado brought back our Nonprofit Pitch Competition – “Impact + Innovation” – as the keynote event for the Social Impact track. With the help of an awesome selection committee, we chose five incredible Boulder County nonprofits to pitch how they’re innovating toward greater impact in the communities they serve. In a Demo Day style, each participating nonprofit had a shot at taking home part of a $20K prize pool; and thanks to three forward-thinking donors and a deeply engaged audience, we bumped that number past $30K by the end of the pitch contest. To connect the dots among all parties involved in Boulder Startup Week, here’s a snapshot of the work the five winning nonprofits are doing:
Attention Homes: Established in 1966, Attention Homes focuses on supporting youth in crisis throughout Boulder County. Having helped more than 10K young adults get back on their feet, Attention Homes shared the next piece of their long-term, innovative solution: brand new affordable housing for those they serve, alongside onsite job training, counseling, and more to ensure that those who have overcome crises have a roof over their heads … and the support and resources they need to stay on the right path.
Bridge House: Focused on helping the homeless men and women of Boulder County improve their lives, Bridge House showcased the next step of its “Ready to Work” program, which focuses on three main needs faced by those experiencing homelessness: support, housing, and work. Touting a success rate higher than 75% over the last two years, Bridge House is partnering with local housing partners to increase the number of apartments for graduates of their program.
Studio Arts Boulder: Art Matters, especially in Boulder County when you pair that with the high school graduation rates among our non-Anglo population. With a successful ceramics program running at the Boulder Pottery Lab, the team at Studio Arts Boulder came to our pitch night with an innovative idea and a recently donated bus: for youths in our community who lack access to arts due to poverty, school funding cuts, unfair treatment due to race, or any other reason why they can’t make it to the Lab, Studio Arts Boulder brings directly to them the opportunity to engage in and create art on a retrofitted bus that even transforms into a gallery.
YMCA Boulder Valley: With an acre of land sitting unused outside of the YMCA in Longmont, the leadership at the oldest nonprofit in Colorado decided to do something about helping low-income families currently living within a food desert. Over the past few years, YMCA’s leadership, students, members, and outside community members have turned the unused land into a fully-functioning farm filled with fruits, veggies, and an education program that emphasizes the basics of nutrition and cooking. Since its inception, the “Seeds of Change” farm has grown on a very limited budget to giving away more than 8K lbs. of food to more than 10K community members in need.
Our $10K winner for the evening was Motus Theater, which is working on capturing and sharing the stories of the undocumented immigrants of Boulder County … and the injustices they face. By documenting and sharing those individuals stories – in both Spanish and English, and through channels like KGNU and other local news outlets – they hope to unsensationalize how the media reports on this community by focusing on human experiences in the midst of changing political winds.
We’re lucky to have had the support of the Knight Foundation, the Anchor Point Foundation, and the Rally for Impact Foundation for two years running, all of which deeply believe in helping “rise the tide” through entrepreneurial-minded initiatives like our annual Nonprofit Pitch Contest … and made up the majority of the more than $30K we were able to give away at the event.
To learn more, click on the links for any participating nonprofits above, or drop me a line to get involved.
