About the Accelerator

How will the Accelerator help me grow my program/service?

Accelerator participants will go through a rigorous, four-month consulting and mentorship program facilitated by Greenlights, and involving local business and nonprofit experts. At the end of this intensive program, you’ll have a detailed, business growth plan for the program or service you want to grow. This “investor-ready” plan will be used to solicit capital – both from Accelerator partners and the broader philanthropic community.

To get that detailed business plan, the Accelerator program will help you address some or all of the following:

• Program efficiency
• Evaluation and measurement
• Product / service ideation
• Target market and industry
• Competition and barriers to entry
• Intellectual property (identifying, protecting, replicating, monetizing)
• Building your team, 3^rd parties, volunteers
• Business model and key metrics
• Marketing and sales
• Financials and organizational structure
• Making the case for investor opportunity/return

At the end of the program, participants will have the opportunity to pitch their plans to potential investors at a graduation event in September.

What will my organization get out of the Accelerator?

• A detailed business growth plan for the program or service you want to grow, scale or replicate
• Access to a cohort of peers to share ideas, lessons learned and strategies for growth
• Human capital in the form of professional consultants and highly-experienced, entrepreneurial mentors who will guide you in creating a business plan and case for support
• Access to financial capital, with all participants receiving $3,000 for your growth plan and the most promising plans likely receiving significant capital investment
• One or more organizations from the Accelerator may be selected to become long-term partner organizations (i.e., “investees”), eligible for commitments of additional financial and human capital needed to get to scale

Who should apply?

Successful applicants have an established strategic plan, a solid leadership team, and other key criteria (see below).  Most importantly, though, you have established a clear vision and initial plan for significantly growing an element of your programs and services.

You should be able to answer “yes” to the following before you apply:

• Are you a Central Texas-based 501(c)3 nonprofit?  Applications this year are limited to 501(c)3 nonprofits.
• Do you seek to dramatically grow, scale or replicate a program or service of your organization? 
• Do you have a track record of program success and clearly established demand for the program?  We will not select new ideas that have not yet been piloted.  You should be able to demonstrate some meaningful level of both (1) program success and (2) demand for growth (i.e., data or other evidence indicating community need) before applying.
• Have you completed some form of an organization-wide strategic plan within the past three years that is aligned with this plan to scale?
• Is your organization financially stable?
• If accepted, will you be able to participate fully in all Accelerator activities?  The Accelerator involves 70-80 total hours of work by the nonprofit’s senior leadership team during the months of May-August, including three in-person sessions (see the calendar of activities). At least two team members must attend each scheduled Accelerator session. To get the most value from the Accelerator, we strongly suggest that the Executive Director, another senior leadership team member with operational authority in the organization, and a board officer or member of the executive committee be the designated participants.

You should NOT apply if:

• You are not a Central Texas-based 501(c)3 nonprofit organization
• You cannot demonstrate that your nonprofit is financially stable
• You do not have evidence of a strategic plan
• The program or service you wish to grow lacks evidence of demand/track record of success
• You do not have the full commitment of your board and staff to pursue an aggressive growth plan for the targeted program or service

Selection Criteria

Our application review team will look for:

• Organizations that seek to solve big community problems in areas of demonstrated need
• A vision for growing/replicating a program or service
• Innovative solutions and/or business models
• Organizational readiness and ability to participate fully, including investing approximately 70-80 hours of leadership time during the process from May-September, 2014
• Leadership stability and strength
• Need for (and ability to effectively deploy) human and financial capital
• Evidence of current program or service success
• Existing financial stability
• Existing approved federal 501c3 nonprofit status and a Texas nonprofit corporation
• A home base and, ideally, a set of existing programs and services, in Central Texas
• Ability to participate in the pitch training workshop (week of April 14, exact date TBD) and the April 28 Philanthropitch event