Seedbeds for Social Innovation
Submitted by Nidhi Chaudhary on Tue, 2011-02-08 15:00
“Place” plays a not so surprising role in success for a start-up. During our Current Fellows Conference, we talked about the influence that the city of Austin plays in the progress of several of our Texas based Fellows. While energetic and eclectic, a lack of a larger commitment to philanthropy makes it both exciting and somewhat arduous to grow an enterprise while in Austin. So what exactly makes a city or region a seedbed for innovation?
The Heinz School at Carnegie Mellon University looked at 800 socially innovative organizations around the United States and sorted them by city to create the “Fertile Ground Index.” They found that cities with a high number of supporting organizations and foundations, the presence of universities, and the size of the city itself were highly influential factors in not only the number of socially innovative organizations, but also the growth and progress of these organizations. Perhaps also not surprisingly, Carnegie found the hubs for social innovation in the US center around San Francisco, New York, and Boston. The question now is, how do we expand these hubs and create stronger environments for innovation? What do you think?
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