Why every social impact accelerator needs a Neighbor-in-Residence
It’s no secret that all incubators and accelerator programs share common elements, mainly the provision of funding, office space, skills training, and, of course, mentorship. While the level and intensity varies from program to program, mentorship — especially around the development of business skills — is one of these universal pieces that all incubators and accelerators offer. This makes sense; entrepreneurs launching a new venture can avoid pitfalls and find a clearer path to success by learning from and working with experienced entrepreneurs and business professionals.
Since its inception several years ago, Social Innovation Lab (SIL) — an accelerator for emerging social ventures based in Baltimore — has relied heavily on mentors to help our ventures set and meet critical milestones. In these mentors, we prioritize business acumen or a high level of knowledge in a specific skill area. For example:
- Our Innovators-in-Residence have a decade or more of experience launching and scaling ventures, and
- Our Social Design Fellows are recruited for their insights and knowledge of human-centered design processes.
Over the past few years, Social Innovation Lab’s ventures have become increasingly focused on tackling social issues locally in Baltimore — not just being based here and serving a population elsewhere. With this shift, we saw our ventures’ mentorship needs shift as well. Our ventures have needed mentorship and guidance not just in the typical business sense, but also when it comes to understanding the socio-political landscape of the city and connecting with and learning from relevant community groups and local government agencies.
Since social entrepreneurs face the dual challenge of building a sustainable venture and changing longstanding social problems, they cannot rely solely on business expertise to reach their goals. To provide expert-level insight and guidance on the city, its neighborhoods, and key stakeholders, SIL created the mentor role of Neighbor-in-Residence.
As in any city, emerging social ventures in Baltimore can find it challenging to build trust and relationships with stakeholders. Though SIL’s selection process favors applicants who have themselves directly experienced the problem they seek to address or who come from the communities they seek to serve, this challenge remains. As our first-ever NIR, Nan Rohrer (who came to the role with more than a decade of experience in Baltimore’s public, private, and nonprofit sectors) worked with each venture in our cohort to help ensure they were connecting with the right people and organizations locally — even going to community meetings with them in order to help build trust.
An analysis of exit interviews and surveys from the cohort showed that our venture leaders found the NIR to be one of the most helpful resources, ranking higher than even funding and a number of other support services. Given that feedback and the importance of social entrepreneurs engaging and innovating with stakeholders, we at SIL believe that every impact accelerator would benefit from having a NIR.
