Local Nonprofits Compete at Fast Pitch

By Elisa Wiefel Schreiber and Eddie North-Hager on November 30, 2009 12:09 PM

The second annual Social Innovation Fast Pitch, which builds awareness and visibility for local nonprofits tackling some of the city’s toughest problems, was held Nov. 11 at USC.

Hosted by the Social Enterprise Institute, the Los Angeles Social Venture Partners and USC, the goal of the event is to celebrate innovative nonprofits in the greater Los Angeles area that demonstrate potential for impact and social problem-solving.

The competition is a fast-moving presentation in which 10 social entrepreneurs share the mission and vision of their organization - in under three minutes - with both the audience and judges. The nonprofits were selected because of their innovative approaches to creating social change.

More than 60 nonprofits applied this year, 22 were accepted and 10 were chosen to make their pitches in front of 400 people in the hopes of taking home a share of more than $20,000 in funding.

Before making that pitch, the nonprofits took part in a two-month program that explained how to succinctly and powerfully tell their stories. The nonprofits worked with dozens of business leaders to hone their pitch.

Girls & Gangs, a nonprofit that provides transitional housing to young women released from jail, won the grand prize of $10,000 for best overall presentation. Dawn L. Brown, executive director of Girls & Gangs, made a compelling pitch about the young women who made the tough decision of leaving their gangs.

Girls & Gangs provides support and advocacy for 340 young women at a cost of $1,000 per client. Nearly 97 percent complete their program and two-thirds stay out of prison.

“The Social Innovation Fast Pitch encourages nonprofit leaders to apply innovative solutions to some of our most pressing problems,” said Juan Felipe Vallejo, director of innovation development at the USC Stevens Institute for Innovation. “In addition to creating recognition and goodwill for the participating organizations, we hope that this event will help to build ongoing, valuable connections between the for-profit and nonprofit communities.”

Just like business-oriented fast pitch events, there was talk of a return on investment, scalability and success rates. But unlike most pitches for funding, the emphasis was on social consciousness.

The competition highlights the social entrepreneur who focuses his or her skills on solving social problems with the same energy, strength and commitment typically found in a start-up company.

The event featured support from several USC departments, including USC Stevens, the USC Marshall School of Business, the USC School of Social Work, the USC School of Policy, Planning, and Development and the USC Office of Religious Life.

Other winners:

• Innovation & Impact ($5,000): The Posse Foundation, presented by Halbe Dougherty-Wood. The foundation, a college-access program, provides four-year, full-tuition scholarships to exclusive colleges. Already operating in seven cities, the foundation identifies, recruits and trains youth from urban public high schools and sends them in diverse groups of 10 students to support each other as they work toward degrees. Ninety percent of the foundation’s members graduate from college. For every $25,000 raised, the foundation can leverage that into $1.2 million in scholarships.

• Best Pitch ($5,000): A Window Between Worlds, presented by Cathy Salser. This nonprofit, which uses art to help end domestic violence, reaches more than 45,000 participants each year at 150 sites throughout Los Angeles and in 25 states.

• Coaches’ Prize ($2,500): City Hall Fellows, presented by Bethany Rubin Henderson. The group recruits college graduates to take active roles in the civic duties of their respective cities. The 12-month program now operating in San Francisco and Houston provides full-time assignments at the highest levels of city government.

The Social Innovation Fast Pitch was judged by a panel of experts in business, philanthropy and investment: Christine Hershey, president and founder of Hershey Cause; Lisa Richter, GPS Capital Partners; Beatriz Solis, The California Endowment; Adlai Wertman, USC Marshall School of Business professor and former leader of Chrysalis; the Rev. Cecil Murray, USC religion professor and former pastor of the First African Methodist Episcopal Church in South Los Angeles; and Peter Samuelson, founder of Everyone Deserves a Roof and winner of the 2008 Social Innovation Fast Pitch.

In partnership with the host organizations, the event was sponsored by the Goldhirsch Foundation, the California Community Foundation, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, the Nicholas Endowment, Fidelity Charitable Services and the Harnisch Harris myCFO Foundation.

TAGS: community programs, innovation

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