The Promising Ventures Fellowship is an accelerator program designed to meet the unique needs of social entrepreneurs in Early Childhood Development (ECD).
Donor Name: Promise Venture Studio
State: All States
County: All Counties
Type of Grant: Fellowship
Deadline: 08/13/2023
Grant Duration: 5 months
Details:
The Promising Ventures Fellowship is an 18-week intensive (and fun!) accelerator designed to support growth-stage equity-driven ventures focused on making a difference in the lives of children pre-natal to age 5 and their families and caregivers. Specifically designed for executives and leaders, the Promising Ventures Fellowship provides coaching, professional learning opportunities, connections, and expert resources to help ventures boost their growth and impact. The Fellowship experience is highly customized according to each venture’s goals; there is very little standard curriculum. The country’s only accelerator focused on early childhood, the fellowship meets ventures where they are to accelerate their progress towards fostering a world where the youngest children — and their families — can thrive.
What’s in it for fellows?
- Personalized coaching and help on your goals from Promise’s team of experienced entrepreneurs and executives
- Facilitated peer-to-peer workshopping of a pressing organizational or leadership challenge you are facing
- A tight-knit community of peer ECD social entrepreneurs
- Ongoing support and community after the program ends
- Connections and access to the ECD field’s key leaders and stakeholders!
Project Period
The Fellowship will run from October 2023 to February 2024.
Eligibility Criteria
The Promising Ventures Fellowship is for ventures who:
- Support children and families
- The Promising Ventures Fellowship is for ventures (e.g. companies, organizations, institutes) that serve children and families in the early childhood stage (prenatal through age 5).
- Are equity-driven
- Promise prioritizes working with ventures that are equity-driven. That means that your venture is actively working to center equity in your mission and theory of change, internal team/board and practices, and external deployment of your programs/products/services. Ventures who meet this bar typically demonstrate a commitment to being in constant conversation with the communities they serve, a bent towards disrupting/dismantling systems of oppression, and a steadfast focus on achieving more equitable outcomes for historically oppressed children and families.
- Have traction and are poised for sustainable growth
- Promise is excited to work with ventures with a demonstrated proof of concept that meets a clear need, that are on sound financial footing, and that are poised to deliver social impact at scale.
- Operate in the US
- This Fellowship is specifically for non- and for-profit ventures that support children and families in the United States. Your venture may be headquartered outside of the US and/or can operate in other countries in addition to the US, but it must operate in the US in some capacity.
- Have strong participation potential:
- Promise is seeking ventures that have been in operation for at least two years and have two members from their leadership team committed to fellowship participation, one of whom is the CEO/ED/President or executive team member. Leaders should expect to dedicate approximately 2-6 hours per week to fellowship-related work (programming or asynchronous goal advancement activities). Because the Fellowship is customized to your venture’s individual goals, most of your time spent on the Fellowship should feel closely aligned with and supportive of your top priorities.
The team highly values diversity and encourages ventures with diverse leadership teams to apply. In particular, and in line with organization’s values, promise strongly encourages applications from organizations led by women, BIPOC, LGBTQ+ individuals, and others from historically underrepresented communities.
Selection Criteria
In addition to the criteria shared on the site, your venture may be a strong fit for the program if it:
- Has clear and ambitious goals for growth, such as bringing a new offering to market, geographic expansion, developing a new product or service, growing your customer base, expanding your team, etc.
- Boasts a diverse leadership team.
- Shows a commitment to achieving equitable and just outcomes for children and families, with a track record of supporting such outcomes.
- Demonstrates established revenue streams and financial stability.
- Clearly defines how it evaluates or intends to measure its impact.
- Utilizes a new and innovative approach to supporting the children and families it serves.
- Has the potential to accelerate its growth and expansion plans with support from Promise.
If your venture meets these criteria, it encourages you to apply. Its dedicated to supporting ventures that align with the mission and have the potential to make a significant impact for children and families.
Your venture may not be a strong fit for the program if it:
- Operates a single child care facility.
- Is in the idea or pilot stage.
- Does not prioritize equity in its approach.
- Operates solely for-profit and does not have a social impact as part of its model.
For more information, visit Promise Venture Studio.
