Call for Applications: Fast Forward Startup Accelerator Program

You’ll receive funding, mentorship, and connections to people who can help you scale. Described as a prominent player in the tech for good landscape, they’ve supported over 100 startups in tackling issues like poverty, healthcare inequity, and education disparities. Through the Startup Accelerator, you’ll be part of a community dedicated to using tech to make a difference.

What makes the Fast Forward Accelerator special?

• Capital- Fundraising strategies (including tactics and sources of capital) are different for tech nonprofits at every stage of the fundraising process as compared to their for-profit peers. There are also unique challenges and opportunities available to tech nonprofits in particular, which they will help you navigate.
• Content- Their curriculum is different. Yes, tech nonprofits must focus on product, hiring, and growth. However, tech nonprofits also need to learn about board development, governance, leveraging volunteers, and other issues specific to nonprofits. The knowledge base they’ve put together for tech nonprofits differs substantially from what for-profits would find valuable.
• Customer- Because of their focus on impact over profit, nonprofits often chase the least profitable customer, which impacts go-to-market strategy and customer life cycle in a way that’s different from for-profits.
• Cohort- Entrepreneurship is lonely. Tech nonprofit entrepreneurship even more so. Tech nonprofit leaders tell us that because of their nonprofit focus they don’t quite fit into for-profit accelerators, and because of their tech product focus they don’t always fit into nonprofit fellowships. They share a set of challenges unique to this intersection, and they’re excited to go through a program with others like them as well as provide each other ongoing support as their organizations grow.
• Community- Key to their mission is building closer ties between the nonprofit and for-profit tech community. The tech world has the opportunity to have a huge impact on these organizations and therefore the world. Their focus on collaborative philanthropy is quite different from for-profit accelerators, which don’t need to invest heavily in community building due to the nature of venture investing.

Funding Information

• Through the Accelerator, you’ll receive a $25,000 philanthropic grant, build community among your cohort, meet dozens of mentors from the tech & social sector, and make connections to people who can help you scale. If you’re a nonprofit tech startup, you’re in the right place.

Eligibility Criteria 

• Fast Forward accepts tech nonprofits from anywhere. Your organization must be registered as a nonprofit in your country. They do not accept B-corps or for-profit social enterprises.
• They prioritize organizations that are prioritizing their technology. So, they do seek out organizations that have a full-time CTO or plan to hire a technology lead in the near future.

Selection Criteria 

• The Accelerator is built exclusively for early stage tech nonprofits. These are organizations that look like typical tech startups they build tech products and have selected a nonprofit structure because they are building for impact instead of profit.
• Fast Forward’s program is designed to address the unique needs of tech nonprofits:
  • Leadership- Tech nonprofits face everything that is hard for a tech startup and everything that’s hard for a nonprofit. To pull it off, the leaders must have steadfast vision and incredible gumption.
  • Lived Experience with Problems- People solve problems in front of them. They want to empower people to solve the problems they see and experience.
  • Tech Talent- The tech vision should be the driving force of the organization and not an auxiliary program. To successfully execute that vision, tech talent must be in a leadership role.
  • Potential for Impact- Impact is a thorny subject. To get to the heart of an organization’s potential, they ask questions like: Who is the organization primarily serving? If successful, how many lives will be positively influenced? How deeply will the organization impact those lives?
  • Scalability- Software scales incredibly well. They support organizations with a vision for change that is matched only by the potential for scale.
  • Alignment- Fast Forward is a small organization. As such, they choose organizations who they are best poised to help scale.

For more information, visit Fast Forward.