Last fall, the Do Good Accelerator launched the Scale Your Impact Program to support and help grow innovative social impact-oriented projects and ventures. UMD students and alumni working on advanced and innovative solutions to social issues affecting our world and our future were eligible to submit a proposal to be awarded up to $10,000.
“We developed the Scale Your Impact Program to support University of Maryland students and alumni on their journeys to do more good in the world. By partnering with Rothschild Capital Partners, we’re able to provide wrap around support to help them grow their organizations with coaching, mentorship, and funding,” said Kisha Logan, manager of the Do Good Accelerator.
Three applicants whose proposals showed strong impact, significant vision, and innovative ideas were invited to advance to the second round to pitch in front of a panel of Do Good Accelerator investors and stakeholders. On November 13, the finalists delivered their pitches to the Do Good Accelerator manager and members from Rothschild Foundation and RCP Philanthropic Projects (RCP3), staunch supporters of the Do Good Institute and Do Good Accelerator.
The finalists included:
- Noble Uprising, founded by Lumnwi Audrey Awasom in 2018, empowers women in shelters by providing job readiness skills training and sustainable job opportunities that enable them to be successful in the job market. No one person can solve the problems of homelessness alone. Their vision is a society where every human being has the opportunity to be a successful citizen. Rather than being content with the status quo, they invest in nobly spirited change makers in our community.
- Vikara Village, founded by Hanna Davis, a School of Public Policy alum and social worker, uses the communal spirit of yoga and the arts to empower individuals to reach their full potential. Vikara Village exists to provide an alternative and complement to traditional mental health services. While talk therapy is helpful, it unfortunately may not work for everyone. Expressive arts like visual arts, music, dance and movement have been found to be powerful tools for social, psycho-social, physical and spiritual wellness, especially when talk therapy has proven unsuccessful.
- PrevHarm LLC, led by UMD alumni Pallavi Guha, believes in empowering employees and organizations to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace. PrevHarm developed an app to serve as a solution to the problem of cyber-sexual harassment in the workplace. The application has been successfully beta-tested to deter cyber-sexual harassment in the workplace and shift the onus of responsibility on the “doer,” and not the “receiver” of cyber-sexual harassment.
We developed the Scale Your Impact Program to support University of Maryland students and alumni on their journeys to do more good in the world.Kisha Logan Manager of the Do Good Accelerator
After hearing each pitch, the panel of judges deliberated and were so impressed with each team’s ability to demonstrate significant impact and innovation that they decided to award Vikara Village $7,000, Noble Uprising $4,500, and PrevHarm $2,000 in additional funds to support the advancement of their nonprofit organizations.
“We are honored to be a part of this new program and can’t wait to see the impact these organizations are able to create. We believe that applying business principles to philanthropic endeavors can dramatically increase their chances of success and the Do Good Accelerator program allows us to put that concept to work,” said David Rothschild, Director of RCP³ and the Rothschild Foundation.
Scale Your Impact is a twice-annual program, with open application periods in the spring and fall semesters.
