Interested in Applying to Philanthropitch Austin? Find Out How Your Nonprofit Can Apply This presentation provides a Application Q&A for Austin nonprofits interested in applying to Philanthropitch, the social impact fast pitch competition helping nonprofits scale sustainable models.

1. Helping Innovative Nonprofits
Scale Sustainable Models
May 8, 2018
www.philanthropitch.org

2. A “fast-pitch” competition for nonprofits
Emphasizes innovative solutions with scalable, sustainable models
Has awarded more than half a million dollars since it was founded in 2013
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What is Philanthropitch?

3. March 14 Application Closes at Midnight
March 22 Semi-Finalists Announced
March 23 - April 2 Semi-Finalist Phone Interviews
April 3 Finalists Announced
April 13 Workshops for Finalists and Non-Finalists
April 20 Pitch Practice #1 for Finalists
April 30 Pitch Practice #2 for Finalists
May 8 Dress Rehearsal and Event Day
Austin Timeline

4. Is Philanthropitch only for relatively new nonprofits?
Not at all! Philanthropitch has provided risk capital to help nonprofits like Goodwill, Easter Seals, and
Habitat for Humanity explore innovative new programs.
Do you only take a certain number of projects in each cause category?
No, we’re just looking for the strongest, most scalable models.
What if we have more than one project that seems like a fit for Philanthropitch?
That’s awesome! You’ll just need to enter them as separate submissions.
What if our nonprofit is a past Philanthropitch finalist? Can I still apply?
It depends! We require that past finalists wait 3 years to apply and that their idea is new. You’ll also have
to tell us the outcomes and impact made from past Philanthropitch funds received on your application.
Should we apply?

5. Pitches will be delivered on-stage at the LBJ Auditorium to an audience of 700+ people and a panel of
judges.
Every nonprofit finalist pitches 5 slides in a 3-minute period
Following each presentation, nonprofit finalists undergo a 3-minute Q&A period with our panel of
judges.
The evening ends with an Awards Presentation Ceremony where each nonprofit finalist is presented
with checks from a mix of Corporate Supporters, Judges, and the Audience Choice Award.
What happens on pitch day?

6. Philanthropitch doesn’t award a standard set of 1st, 2nd and
3rd prizes. Instead, each judge donates their own money and
decides how it should be distributed among the finalists.
Presenters might receive additional cash awards from
corporate donors and our Audience Choice text-to-vote
award.
The total awards pool for our last Austin event was
$142,000. This year’s pool will be $200-250K
What do the winners get?

7. Tackling the Application

8. 1. What prompted you to develop the initiative in question? Please tell us about the scope
of the opportunity.
Translation: What is the problem you’re trying to solve? How big is it?
● Don’t Just Say: We wanted to try something new and this sounded cool.
● Better Answers:
○ We were getting so many requests to help other organizations that the market for our expertise
had become clear…
○ We had X resource going to waste and knew we could find a smart way to put it to use...
● Best Answer: We were hitting roadblocks with our traditional model, so we tried X and figured out
that we could serve Y number of people at an average cost of $Z with revenue of $Z+2. Now that we’re
ready to scale, here is what we’ve learned about the size of this market...

9. 2. Tell us about your solution. What makes it unique or innovative? How will this
solution help your organization reach your desired Community Result?
Translation: Why is your solution the best answer to this problem?
● Don’t Just Say: Everyone loves it. We get so many thank you notes!
● Better Answer: Our solution has three key layers of impact. First…
● Best Answer: Our solution has the potential to scale to other communities/target groups in a way that
is self-sustaining. This model feeds on its own success without the need for a heavy reliance on
traditional philanthropy. Here’s how it works...

10. 3. How do you know your solution is working? How do you measure outcomes? How is
this program/service performing versus its goals?
Translation: Numbers here are great! What data have you collected? How can you be
sure your results are causally tied to the work you’re doing?
● Don’t just say: I can see it in their smiles!
● Better Answer: We use X mechanism to capture data at monthly intervals…
● Best Answer: Out of 500 students served, 90% have demonstrated X positive outcome and, using Y as
a benchmark, we’re projecting Z% growth…

11. 4. Tell us about your current business model and how you plan to scale it.
Translation: How will you go from X to Y? How fast do you plan to get there?
● Don’t Just Say: It’s all on our website. We think this could be really big!
● Better Answer: Our product or service is… Our clients/customers are....
● Best Answer: Our product or service is… Our clients/customers are.... Here is why they are willing to pay
for our service/product… Here are our results to date… Here is where we want to take this project…
Here is how we’re going to get there...

12. 5. What challenges will you face along the way? What kind of support will you need to get
there?
Translation: What does this project need besides money? What tricky hurdles will you
have to get over? What kind of guidance could we help provide?
● Don’t Just Say: We just need people to believe in us and write checks.
● Better Answer: In order to scale, we know we’re going to need help getting the word out to networks
that don’t even know we exist yet. We’d really appreciate some guidance on marketing…
● Best Answer: Scaling to X is within reach, but we’ve calculated that making the leap to Y will require an
additional half a headcount and scaling to Z will require a dedicated full-time employee.

13. Applications Close Midnight, March 14
Need help or have questions? Email us at
questions@philanthropitch.org.
Philanthropitch is an initiative of Notley
www.notleyventures.com