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In one of Albuquerque’s poorest zip codes, a new innovation incubator is boosting nonprofit startups to take on social problems.
SINC, short for Social Impact and Nonprofit Community, is Albuquerque’s first incubator for social entrepreneurs.
“We are essentially a lean startup mechanism for non-profits,” said SINC employee and community developer, Tim Nisly. “If you want to start a nonprofit project, you come in and we vet your idea. We have a really clear idea of what the path looks like.”
Nisly says the startup process is similar to that of for-profit ventures, but nonprofits can bring extra leverage — because of their social mission.
“What we’ve learned over the last 30 years is the power of volunteers… and social entrepreneurs,” Nisly said. “To come in and build something out because they really care about giving back.”
According to Nisly, a nonprofit startup still needs a business plan. It must be efficient in using dollars to deliver services. And better services help raise more revenue, which allow more staff and more services.
“We’re not in this for small wins,” Nisly said. “We ask a lot of ourselves, we ask a lot of our program managers who come in and give their time and energy to build our projects… and we ask a lot of our volunteers”
“We’re in this to change New Mexico,” he said, “and it’s not going to be an easy lift, but it’ll be a fun lift. And it’ll be worth it.”
Hi, I’m the (first-ever) Professor of Practice in Journalism at University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. So I’m very involved in helping students learn multimedia journalism. Before New Mexico, I was the 2012-2013 Reynolds Chair in Ethics of Entrepreneurial and Innovative Journalism at the University of Nevada, Reno… and, before that, a 2011 Knight Journalism Fellow at Stanford University. I’m also very active as a consultant, having spent over 25 years as a news director. My website is http://www.mikemarcotte.com or on Twitter: http://twitter.com/michvinmar
