Applications Invited for Fast Forward 2025 Startup Accelerator

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About the Organization

Tech is ubiquitous. Tech solutions for social problems are not. An emerging class of startups is building tech to solve these social problems. They are tech nonprofits. Fast Forward bridges the tech and nonprofit sectors to build capacity for tech nonprofits, so they can scale solutions to our world’s most urgent problems.

As the first and only organization focused exclusively on scaling startups that combine the best tech with sustainable nonprofit business models, Fast Forward’s mission is to accelerate impact.

About the Fellowship  

The Accelerator is Fast Forward’s flagship program for tech nonprofits. We bridge the tech and nonprofit worlds, providing training and resources applicable to the challenges only a tech nonprofit entrepreneur knows. Through the Accelerator, you’ll receive a $25,000 philanthropic grant, build community among your cohort, meet dozens of mentors from the tech & social sector, and make connections to people who can help you scale. If you’re a nonprofit tech startup, you’re in the right place.

Fast Forward’s program is designed to address the unique needs of tech nonprofits:

• Capital. Fundraising strategies (including tactics and sources of capital) are different for tech nonprofits at every stage of the fundraising process as compared to their for-profit peers. There are also unique challenges and opportunities available to tech nonprofits in particular, which we will help you navigate.
• Content. Our curriculum is different. Yes, tech nonprofits must focus on product, hiring, and growth. However, tech nonprofits also need to learn about board development, governance, leveraging volunteers, and other issues specific to nonprofits. The knowledge base we’ve put together for tech nonprofits differs substantially from what for-profits would find valuable.
• Customer. Because of their focus on impact over profit, nonprofits often chase the least profitable customer, which impacts go-to-market strategy and customer life cycle in a way that’s different from for-profits.
• Cohort. Entrepreneurship is lonely. Tech nonprofit entrepreneurship even more so. Tech nonprofit leaders tell us that because of their nonprofit focus they don’t quite fit into for-profit accelerators, and because of their tech/product focus they don’t always fit into nonprofit fellowships. They share a set of challenges unique to this intersection, and they’re excited to go through a program with others like them as well as provide each other ongoing support as their organizations grow.
• Community. Key to our mission is building closer ties between the nonprofit and for-profit tech community. The tech world has the opportunity to have a huge impact on these organizations and therefore the world. Our focus on collaborative philanthropy is quite different from for-profit accelerators, which don’t need to invest heavily in community building due to the nature of venture investing.

Eligibility

The Accelerator is built exclusively for early-stage tech nonprofits. These are organizations that look like typical tech startups—they build tech products—and have selected a nonprofit structure because they are building for impact instead of profit.

How to Apply

The 2025 Startup Accelerator application is open! Apply by September 9th.

Apply now

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