Donor Funding Models for Innovation: A Review
Hailing from Rhode Island, Cassie lives and works from Charleston, SC with her husband, two children, and a rescue pup Bella. Each of these rising fundraising and donor engagement efforts has been used by real-world nonprofits to great success, so there aren’t uncharted waters. Despite substantial investment in entrepreneurship—by the government, universities, and the private sector—the per capita rate of job creation from new companies has declined for decades. They ran a Kickstarter campaign, and presold 15,000 units, raising $6.4 million in advanced market commitments. While rhetoric has frequently elevated the importance of innovation, actual allocations of funding and personnel have not quite matched this enthusiasm. Resources for innovation remain scant when compared to overall development assistance. USAID, for example, spends just $30 million per year on its DIV program, compared to the $18 billion in other assistance that USAID obligates each year. DIV and GIF are both mean