nonprofit
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INROADS and the first-job problem
A paid internship can change a summer. INROADS builds the preparation, introductions, and relationships that can change what comes after it.
SkillPath teaches the boss. Then helps pay for college.
A workplace training bill can have a second life. At SkillPath, the surplus helps fund Graceland University students - while the lessons tackle the everyday business of getting better at work.
Health care starts before the exam room.
Edward M. Kennedy Community Health Center began with seven mothers who wanted better care for their families. Its enduring idea: fix the obstacles between a person and an appointment.
Team Work and the case of the 62 violins
A Florida education nonprofit found a use for 62 idle violins. Its bigger experiment asks what students need after someone agrees to pay the tuition.
SAPIE makes the right introduction.
Slovakia has the talent. SAPIE works on the connections - linking companies, researchers and policymakers so good ideas have somewhere to go.
What if safety could stay at home?
Michal Sela Forum brings security experts, survivors and startup builders to the same problem: protecting women before the next attack. Its most revealing innovation is the connection between them.
AdvaMed: The invention after the invention
A medical device can work perfectly and still struggle to reach a patient. AdvaMed organizes the companies trying to get through the other half of innovation: rules, reimbursement, and the politics of access.
Van Andel Institute gives discovery room to breathe
A $10 million microscope suite. A diabetes drug that disappointed. Inside the Michigan institute built to follow a biological question wherever the evidence leads.
OCA and the price of a calling
The Orthodox Church in America has spent generations building parish life. A program that puts financial coaching and $5,000 grants into clergy households reveals what it takes to keep that life going.
FinOps Foundation makes the cloud bill everyone's business
The cloud made spending easy. FinOps Foundation built a common language for the people left explaining the bill. Now AI is putting that language to work in new places.
The Forest at Duke thinks in tens
A Durham retirement community rebuilt its health center around ten-person households. Behind the domestic details sits a bigger wager on how people want to grow old.
Christopher Slatt and the business of letting people in
He co-founded WatchGuard to help businesses secure their networks. At Starfire Sports, Christopher Slatt put his experience to work on another problem: giving more children a place to play.
John O’Nolan and the company he can never sell
Ghost’s co-founder made independence a condition of the business. From a music-school detour to a publishing platform built to outlast him, John O’Nolan keeps asking who the tools really serve.
iGen Foundation puts a business idea in better company
A Melbourne charity pairs entrepreneurship with the art of meeting people outside your own circle. Its most useful lesson may be that a business plan needs a social life.
Kenya’s next startup should not need a Nairobi postcode
The Association of Countrywide Innovation Hubs connects Kenya’s regional hubs to training, partners and opportunity. Its most useful innovation may be making distance matter less.
Knoxville Entrepreneur Center makes the right introduction
A maker and a software founder can walk through the same door in Market Square. Knoxville Entrepreneur Center has built its business around what happens next: useful advice, sharper plans, and people willing to help.
HumanBulb wants your first startup to begin with a question
In Sacramento, a nonprofit connects paid green-career internships, hands-on technology education, and AI startup programs. Its most useful lesson: interview the customer before falling in love with the invention.
Startup Tucson makes room for the dumpling founder
A dumpling business and a clinical software company can share a startup stage. In Southern Arizona, that is a clue to how Startup Tucson thinks an economy gets built.
New Energy Nexus helps clean energy escape the lab
A battery needs proof. A solar lantern needs a route to market. New Energy Nexus builds the missing connections between a good idea and somebody who can use it.
African Diaspora Network puts the missing people at the table
A Silicon Valley nonprofit turns diaspora connections into training, partnerships, and philanthropic capital. Its most useful lesson is how to make an introduction amount to something.
Grupo Guayacán: Before the Money, 100 Conversations
Puerto Rico’s business education nonprofit asks founders to test their ideas on strangers. Its larger experiment is turning private capital, patient teaching and local connections into businesses that can grow.
The Venture Center puts startups in the room with the buyer
In Little Rock, the most useful startup introduction may be to someone who can say no. The Venture Center has built its accelerator work around getting founders close enough to banks, producers and mentors to hear what needs changing.
Paris&Co puts the startup pitch to the street test
A clever idea can survive a pitch and still lose an argument with a gym timetable. Paris&Co helps entrepreneurs and public institutions discover the difference before they commit to a rollout.
Complete College America wants to give students their time back
A remedial class. A missing course. A semester that becomes a year. Complete College America helps colleges redesign the small delays that can swallow a degree.
Accelerate Okanagan and the art of making a small city invest
In Kelowna, a technology nonprofit teaches both sides of the funding table. Its lesson for other regions: a promising founder is only half the equation.
Fumsoft and the business of making software businesses work
A startup needs more than a clever product. In Minas Gerais, Fumsoft has spent three decades assembling the less glamorous essentials: capable teams, dependable processes, research partnerships, and a route to the next customer.
DLabs and the awkward art of becoming a business
A prototype can impress a room and still go nowhere. At the Indian School of Business, DLabs helps founders tackle the less glamorous work: validation, market access and investment readiness.
Innovate Mississippi puts $50,000 behind the homework
A statewide nonprofit pairs startup coaching with capital and local connections. Its wager: founders can build an investable business without first leaving Mississippi.
Leading Change Africa bets on what happens after the opportunity
A scholarship opens a door. This Madison nonprofit works on the awkward business of getting young Africans through it - and helping them open the next one.
Nashville Entrepreneur Center sells the introduction you can’t get yourself
Inside an old trolley barn, a Nashville nonprofit makes business relationships available by the month. Its real product is access - and its own history shows what that access costs.