More about the Incubation Program

So I’ll soon be a part of the Charity Entrepreneurship (CE) Incubation Program.  The Program has 2 primary inputs:

• a cohort of aspiring charity founders from around the world. 10 people including me for this H2’23 instance, with a European centre of gravity, but participant locations spanning also Australia, Kenya and US. 
• a shortlist of 6 target niches for new charities, focussed on highly cost-effective impact, mostly in the Global Health & Development (GH&D) domain.

Given these inputs – and a proven program of training, activities, mentorship, seed funding network, and more – the Incubation Program aims to foster creation of several new charities, mostly with pairs of co-founders, with detailed plans and seed funding secured to cover the first 6-12 months of operation.

The main program is 8-10 weeks, with 2 mandatory London weeks, and a further 2 optional/recommended London weeks, with the rest attended remotely. Zoom/Meet/etc are used heavily.

Things already kicked-off in June with a pre-program month of weekly book club sessions to cover intro-level How to Launch a High-Impact Nonprofit and detailed research reports on the targeted charity ideas. The ideas include:

1. Scaling up Oral Rehydration Solution and zinc co-packs for the treatment of diarrhea in under-5-year-olds.
2. Policy advocacy for subscription models to drive the production of new antimicrobials
3. Direct distribution of family planning products and information (already started in Nigeria)

(Plus 3 more omitted here for brevity.)

The first 5 weeks of the program proper are focussed on establishing both a co-founder and idea match. Building a new organisation in a demanding domain with inevitable substantial gaps in cofounders’ collective experience is a big deal – and these co-founder pairings are reportedly the biggest predictor of the charity’s success or lack thereof.  It’s especially challenging when we’ve only known each other for a few weeks, so a lot of effort, thought & energy goes into that.  (CE’s selection process, which whittled-down ~1000 applicants to 10 participants, means we’re likely to be value-aligned despite being a diverse group.)  

Matching with the ideas is clearly also crucial, though perhaps simpler for each of us to gauge degrees of interest, relevant prior experience, logistical considerations, etc. While we all no doubt have an inkling of preference at this stage, a significant part of the mindset is that the end impact (lives saved/improved) is the motivator more than an intervention for its own sake.

Weeks 6-8 are then focussed upon fleshing out the charity proposal (for seed funding application) and CE providing guidance through the first few weeks of the fledgling charity’s existence. CE’s network of seed funders review proposals in Week 9 and in Week 10 provide a yes/no on providing funding to cover approximately the first year of the charity’s operation. (Funding thereafter _may_ come from the same source, but it may well be extended by foundation or high-net-worth individual support; direct Government support being unlikely in the early years.)

In terms of location of the new organisation, this is determined by the cofounders. My default is “remote-first”, but making sure we have regular in-person time – whether that’s monthly/more/less depending on co-founder location and other logistical factors. One possible configuration is a Europe/UK base (near CE support, funders, network) plus 1+ bases in the target countries (if it’s a direct delivery intervention, eg. ideas 1 & 3 above).

Exciting to think that all-being-well I’ll be co-founding a high impact charity startup in 6 weeks’ time!