Start-up funding

This is the third in a series of articles focused on funding in S&D. 

Dalton Barrett says, "Funding should be viewed as two distinct types: start up funding and continuation funding." Both should be considered from the outset for the sustainability of the project; however start-up funding is the first big hurdle and is essential for developing the basic project structure needed to obtain continued funding.  

• Learn more about where to start in the toolkit section

Social Incubators 

One possible approach is to pitch your idea to the growing number of social entrepreneur incubators. Two examples of possible social incubators to target are Echoing Green and the Unreasonable Institute. This approach has been taken by S&D projects in the past, with successful examples including Playable and Coaching 4 Change.  

S&D projects accepted by social incubators will have demonstrated that the project:

• Is relevant (i.e. addresses a major social issue) 
• Is sustainable (i.e. requires low maintenance)  
• Is scalable  (i.e. impacts a large number of people)

The value of in-kind contributions

As a start-up S&D project, getting things done cheaply or better yet for free, is the name of the game. There are many in-kind resources available to help you address the various, and otherwise costly, aspects of succesful project development.   

The following examples are only a few of the many different types of in-kind resources available:

• Technical (e.g. techsoup)
• Legal (e.g. PILnet)
• Communications (e.g. sportanddev)
• Equipment and transportation (e.g. IAYS)

Beyond Sport and pwc also offer an excellent online learning series which could be useful for ongoing project-related issues such as fundraising in difficult times, social impact measurement and budgeting and forecasting.

Now that your project is getting off the ground, where to go from here? Part four in this series will look into the issue of continued funding.