Civic Accelerator Celebrates Partnership

More than 150 social entrepreneurs, impact investors and community partners came together as part of a Community Innovation Breakfast on June 19, hosted by Starbucks, to celebrate a new strategic partnership and the call to action for supporters of the Civic Accelerator, a new Points of Light and Village Capital venture.

Leadership from partner and investor Starbucks was on hand to share the news and provided a challenge for other funders to step up to match their extraordinary gift.

The Civic Accelerator is the first national startup accelerator focused on civic ventures – for-profit and nonprofit ventures that create social good and inspire, equip and mobilize individuals as part of the solution. The 12-week program will apply tools from for-profit accelerators to build an ecosystem of social entrepreneurs, impact investors and stakeholders to increase the likelihood of success for civic ventures and create real change in our communities. Social entrepreneurs accepted into this competitive program will benefit from mentoring, entrepreneur education, peer support and networking in addition to investments made across the cohort and larger seed investments for two of the most promising solutions selected by the entrepreneurs themselves.

The team shared plans to identify other partners and funders over the summer months to prepare to launch an initial cohort of 10 teams from around the country by the end of the year.