“Gathering metrics that funders care about is a key part of actually being able to raise funding”- Paul Belknap
In 2023, when a group of passionate and determined impact enablers sat around a table to envision an organization that would enable the impact incubation sector to mature, unify and amplify their work across the Global South, Paul Belknap, Director of Impact Investing at the Miller Center for Global Impact, was front and center in those conversations – as a member of the design team and a founding member of the Pollinate Impact network.
In the original iteration of this blog, first published on November 3, 2023, Paul offers insight into membership benefits and what he finds the most exciting about this network.
The most exciting part about Pollinate Impact and its Network approach!
Talent!
Talent is one of the core strategies for the Network.
The challenges in attracting and retaining top talent in the sector are well known, but efforts to date really haven’t meaningfully improved the situation. During the development of Pollinate Impact, talent has been a central focus, and I’m optimistic that our strategies around talent support will start to really change things for the industry.
In fact, strategies to attract and retain top-quality talent in the impact incubation industry are embedded across multiple pillars of our network.
Our convenings bring together diverse stakeholders and offer a platform to share insights, solutions, and ideas to address the Talent Challenge at a systems-change level. You can explore some of these discussions in our webinar:
Building a Talent Pipeline for Social Impact webinar.
Our Tool Library curates practical resources on impact incubation, including talent acquisition and retention.
Our Connections pillar creates pathways for youth and mid-career professionals to explore careers in impact incubation – helping to attract fresh, exceptional talent into the field.
“Gathering metrics that funders care about is a key part of actually being able to raise funding”
Pollinate Impact as a changemaker to address impact incubator challenges, particularly around funding and talent.
The network plays a big role in helping impact incubators solve their biggest challenges, including talent, funding and quality incubation. Not surprisingly, talent and funding are intertwined.
We’ll start by talking about funding:
One of Pollinate Impact’s core strategies is helping incubators attract more contextualized and innovative funding and build pathways to become financially sustainable. We’re starting with reducing information asymmetry and increasing access by circulating our curated funding opportunities database to our members.
And it does not stop there – our members can access fundraising office hours to improve their chances of securing funding.
Our Donor Ask Me Anything series offers opportunities to build long term and meaningful relationships with Donors, moving away from one-time transactional interactions. For example:
Further, we are helping measure what matters because we understand that more effective incubators with better systems and programs are able to raise more money.
Gathering metrics that funders care about is a key part of actually being able to raise funding, and we’re working with our members to help them make sure they have the skills, knowledge and tools to meet this demand.
These strategies are important places to start, but they ultimately are executed by people, and as I mentioned above, I think the focus on talent is the most exciting thing for me about this network.
Helping incubators raise more money is the most important thing you can do to help solve the talent challenge.
“One of Pollinate Impact's core strategies is helping incubators attract more contextualized and innovative funding and build pathways to become financially sustainable.”
If we want to attract great talent, we need to be able to pay them appropriately.
Once we can get them onboard and offer them decent compensation, the work really starts.
Pollinate Impact is focused on supporting and empowering incubators in a few ways:
It is focused on providing a community and career development resources for people across all staff levels of the member organization, not just at the senior level, like is the case for many similar organizations.
Career advancement pathways are critical to retaining great talent, and helping incubators establish those is also an exciting part of our work.
When we can attract and retain great talent, we’ll be able to attract and retain more funding, which creates a virtuous cycle.
Getting these pieces right is critical to the success of the impact incubation industry.
Pollinate Impact is creating opportunities for incubators and other players in the impact ecosystem.
In the long term, the opportunities to collaborate and achieve speed, scale and impact around some of the big global challenges facing people and the planet is an exciting strategy.
I’m excited to see resources mobilized in a focused way that crowds in capital while growing the pie for impact incubators and other stakeholders in the ecosystem.
This will increase our effectiveness and accelerate our impact with these challenges and help amplify the work of the social entrepreneurs that incubators support!
Key benefit of the Network and why an incubator should consider becoming a member.
The career development support and community for employees across the organization is pretty unique by providing a safe space to build trust, connect & collaborate. It’s one of the most important benefits of joining.
Anything we can do to improve the flow of talent into the ecosystem and retention of that talent will be a big help, since our success ultimately comes back to our people.
Describing Pollinate Impact:
It’s an organization that is welcoming to all, with a passionate group of people who are committed to excellence in producing a future where we’re making a real dent in solving the world’s biggest challenges.
The formation of Pollinate Impact was built on this transformational idea of unifying and amplifying the voice of the impact incubation industry in the Global South. Everyone who came together to share their experiences and challenges helped form this member-led network.
I was able to collaborate with colleagues from all over the world, and learn about how they’ve faced really similar challenges, as well as hearing about important key differences.
Embracing the diversity of our members is one of the factors that will make Pollinate Impact successful.
This post was originally published on November 3, 2023 as part of the launch of the Pollinate Impact network. It has been updated to reflect the strategies first outlined during the design phase of the network.
Paul Belknap
Paul Belknap is the Director of Impact Investing at the Miller Center for Social Entrepreneurship. He is passionate about improving access to quality healthcare through innovation.
