Innovation
Innovation
By Donna Oklak
There have been increased calls in central Indiana recently to step up innovation in our community to solve today’s complex problems.
Finding solutions takes collaborative work between business, policy makers, nonprofits and communities. Real solutions take real work. A new recognition program called the Arago Honors by the Meridian Foundation recently found eight nonprofits working on solutions to improve health, food insecurity, aging assistance, early learning education, workforce development, new business acceleration, arts entrepreneurship, racial equity and social capital. Leaders of these nonprofits are intentional problem solvers.
In many cases these nonprofits are solving more than one problem at a time. They are addressing public health, workforce development, education and inclusion, which have all been cited by experts as weaknesses in Indiana in comparison to neighboring states.
Let’s applaud these inspiring innovation nonprofit solutions:
Society of St. Andrew for the creation of a new gleaning affiliate in Indiana to lower food insecurity within the state and save over 4.1 million pounds of healthy food.
The Milk Bank for building a new partnership with Versiti (formerly Indiana Blood Center). Although the two nonprofit organizations have remarkably similar missions and are well-aligned, they did not collaborate. Since creating the partnership in 2018 nearly 500 mothers have utilized the Versiti depot locations in Indiana and Kentucky Blood Centers.
CICOA Aging and In-Home Solutions for creating a Venture Studio to build scalable revenue-generating enterprises for this 47-year old nonprofit serving the aging population in central Indiana. CICOA employees bringing new ideas to the Venture Studio are incentivized and compensated when products reach the market.
Early Learning Indiana for Classroom Support-Work Based Learning Program providing a blended online and in-person learning format for classroom support professionals. The program allows ELI employees to earn a salary while completing their credential and become classroom ready, more quickly and less expensively than traditional programs.
PATTERN for a nonprofit Fellowship program building career portfolios for young interns in fashion design, photography, graphic design, digital and social media and art and music. PATTERN’s goal is to keep Indiana talent in Indiana and grow the creative economy in an equitable and inclusive way.
Launch HOPE Foundation for giving underserved women a second chance by teaching them to become entrepreneurs with vetted business plans by Butler University’s Lacy School of Business undergraduate students. The new program currently operates at Phalen Leadership Academy and Hamilton County jail with plans for more sites in 2022.
Spirit and Place at IUPUI’s School of Liberal Arts for Powerful Conversations on Race (PCR), a civic reflection dialogue facilitation method utilizing artwork, texts and other media for public reflection and dialogue on this difficult topic. Spirit and Place has a 24- year history of exploring community issues, and is building an income-generating social entrepreneurship strategy around PCR.
GANGGANG for BUTTER: A Fine Art Fair held in September In Indianapolis, promoting equity in the arts and creative community by this start-up nonprofit. The focus on Black artists is unlike other art fairs because BUTTER artists pay no fee to participate and 100% of the profit from works sold goes to the artists.
Each nonprofit received a $10,000 unrestricted award for nonprofit innovation at the end of 2021. The award program is a refiguration of the Indiana Achievement Awards started by Jim Dodson over 20 years ago co-sponsored by The Indianapolis Business Journal and others. The Arago Honors award program by the Meridian Foundation will be repeated in 2022 and nonprofits can apply at www.indymeridianfoundation.org on or before August 15, 2022.
We all benefit when nonprofit leaders take a break from usual practices, in large or small ways, to make significant social change.