Tuesday night Microsoft was honored to host its inaugural Innovation Forum in partnership with Full Circle Fund, featuring speakers who are leading the way in 21st century capacity-building, education reform, research, education and civic engagement. The Forum provided an opportunity for regional leaders from as far as Oakland and Santa Cruz to convene around a shared goal: revolutionizing learning and giving in the Bay Area.
The first half of the program was entitled “Education: In and Out of the Classroom.” Speakers represented organizations with complementary missions—some to inspire youth during the school day and some to reach students beyond the four walls of their classrooms. Two of the non-profits showcased were Wishbone and iZone:
- Wishbone, the winner of the night’s $2,000 mini-grant from Microsoft and Full Circle Fund, works to send low-income high school students from New York City, the Bay Area, and Los Angeles to summer programs. Through crowdfunding students gain access to programs they otherwise could not afford to attend. Wishbone wants to inspire thousands of kids to redefine their future and pursue their passions.
- The iZone, a partnership between the San Mateo County Office of Education and the Full Circle Fund, is committed to creating the conditions for and relationships needed to promote and spur innovation in public education. Personalized learning that produces ever-improved results for all students and more equitable outcomes for historically under-served students is the focus of the innovations supported by the iZone.
A panel of four women then took the stage to talk STEM. The cohort is comprised of Microsoft grantees who were awarded general operating support this past spring as part of Microsoft Silicon Valley’s 2014 YouthSpark[1] grant. With their grant, Maker Education Initiative, TechGYRLS (YWCA), Technovation (Iridescent) and The Tech Museum have created a community of learning and begun leveraging each other’s expertise.
During the second half of the evening’s event, we switched gears and focused on the citizenry to answer the question, “How can people more deeply engage in their communities, both on and offline?” Lenny Mendonca, board member at FuseCorps, encouraged attendees to pursue fellowship positions within local government. By harnessing the talents and ideas of mid-career professionals, FuseCorps brings fresh ideas and needed skills into municipalities.
Crowdfunding was a topic of discussion, both for civic projects and for non-profit organizations in general. Stanford researcher Rodrigo Davies’ studies on civic crowdfunding have shown that civic projects are nearly twice as likely to reach their fundraising goals as non-civic projects.[2] (Bonus fun fact: of all civic projects studied, parks were most likely to succeed.) Gwyneth Gaul from Silicon Valley Community Foundation gave an overview of the 2015 SVGives campaign. In the event’s first year, this 24-hour crowdfunding opportunity yielded $8 million in donations from nearly 15,000 donors to Silicon Valley-based nonprofit organizations.
Thank you to all the bright minds that joined us on Tuesday. We look forward to seeing the outcomes of such inspiring conversations.
[1] Microsoft’s commitment to empower 300 million young people with opportunities for education, employment, and entrepreneurship.
[2] Based on data from crowdfunding platform Kickstarter. [If Civic were a separate category, it would be Kickstarter’s most successful category.]
