About SVP Fast Pitch Seatte
Jacob Colker – Jumpstart Workshop 6-5 one on oneSVP Fast Pitch Seattle (formerly known as SIFP) is a fast-pitch granting and investment forum highlighting New Ideas for Social Impact, presented by Social Venture Partners Seattle. Nonprofits and for-profits compete for over $250,000 in funding and the opportunity to present cutting-edge ideas to as many as 1,000 of the most engaged social impact leaders, philanthropists, and investors around Seattle.
The program offers nonprofit and for-profit innovators a structured program to develop and sharpen plans and presentations of their work through workshops, coaching, and mentoring. The program culminates in a series of competitive rounds – Quarterfinals, Semifinals, and Finals – that provide recognition, connections, grants, and investments for the winners.
In addition to a chance at funding, this year’s applicants will be eligible for even more awards! Over 50 applicants will share in $40,000 in Google App Engine credits. 40 applicants will share in $20,000 in co-working at the HUB, Seattle’s premiere address for social innovators. Over 50 applicants will each be eligible to apply for $20,000 of Google Cloud* for their organization, wow! Ten applicants will receive ongoing support and mentorship from Fledge, the “conscious company” incubator.
Background
The SVP Fast Pitch Seattle has been developed based on successful models that Social Venture Partners chapters have run around the US in the past 3 years, in Dallas, Los Angeles, Phoenix, and Pittsburgh, and Rhode Island. The fast pitch formats showing the best results involve an intensive series of workshops and coaching sessions followed by a fast-paced auditorium-style presentation to judges and an audience of donors and community leaders.
We’re leveraging all that’s been learned in recent SVP efforts, as well as the skills and experience of local angel groups, university business plan competitions, and our community innovation partners. Finally, we’re also building on learnings from the “Social Investment Forum” sponsored by SVP Seattle, that ran in 2000-2004, described here.
In addition to establishing SVP Fast Pitch Seattle , SVP’s team will be building “Fast Pitch-in-a-box” to enable low-cost replication of the model in other cities in the US, and internationally as well.
Donors and Sponsors
SIFP Seattle 2012 was made possible by the generous contributions of Ashoka Seattle, Next 50 Seattle Center 2012, Microsoft, Inome, Amazon.com, Skydive, Microsoft Alumni Foundation, Winshuttle, Coinstar, Fenwick & West LLP, CrossCut, Davis Wright Tremaine LLP, Karen Ducy Photography, Nsansa, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, Geekwire, and the Bezos Family Foundation.
SIFP Seattle 2011 was made possible by the generous contributions from our founding donors including Ashoka Seattle, the Bezos Family Foundation, Bill and Paula Clapp, the Microsoft Alumni Foundation, and Social Venture Partners. Our founding corporate sponsors included Aditi Technologies and Microsoft.
Transparency, Avoiding Conficts of Interest, and Uses of Funds
All community volunteers, SVP staff, directors, and contractors have pledged to maintain the highest of ethical standards and openness and transparency in how they conduct the operations of the SVP Fast Pitch Seattle program. All who have material involvement with the selection, coaching, judging, and/or investment processes of SVP Fast Pitch Seattle have read and agreed to abide by the Policy, as may be updated from time to time on this web site.