NEW for 2019: Refreshing the Innoweave platform

September 27, 2018

Exciting updates throughout next year.

In 2019, Innoweave will be working to make its application process more flexible and responsive.

Over the last six years, we have had two annual intakes, but we’ve heard from groups we’ve supported and coaches that our due dates could fit more effectively with organizations’ working schedules. In 2019, we’ll be experimenting with some adjusted timing, and adding an additional intake.

In 2019, Innoweave will have the following deadlines:

Expression of Interest deadlines:
11:59pm PT on
(or the first working day following)…		 Application deadlines:
11:59pm PT on
(or the first working day following)…
December 15 February 1
April 15 June 1
August 15 October 1

 

Community organizations and collectives may become eligible to apply by submitting an Expression of Interest on any stream (and being cleared by Innoweave for a full application), or by completing one of Innoweave’s fall workshops.

Our Impact and Strategic Clarity stream will remain direct entry for the February deadline (no workshop or Expression of interest required). As always, we require organizations to connect with their prospective coach before submitting an application for coaching support.

Piloting other improvements – the Social Enterprise stream

Innoweave is also looking at new ways to help organizations to select their best possible social innovation approach, prepare themselves for a coaching engagement, and develop a strong plan for a coach-ready project.

This fall, we’ll be using our Social Enterprise stream to pilot some changes to our processes to best support these objectives. The new application process for Social Enterprise for the February 1, 2019 deadline will include 3 steps:

  1. Register yourself and your organization in a new online portal.
  2. Become eligible by submitting a short  Expression of Interest, including your organization’s basic details, as well as your project idea, by December 17, 2018. Innoweave will review submissions in a timely manner and confirm whether or not you can proceed and fill out a Request for Support.
  3. Send in a complete  Request for Support by February 1, 2019, detailing your challenges, support needs, coach information, and learning plan details.

Innoweave’s learning-based approach

All of these adaptations to our process and platform are part of a larger Innoweave effort to offer better resources, in a timely fashion, to organizations that seek support in embedding social innovation approaches in their work.

This will be a learning and adaptation process for Innoweave, and we’re excited to undertake that work with the many organizations and coaches we support. As part of this project, we’re also taking a look at the reporting we require from those who receive Innoweave grants. We don’t want onerous or redundant reporting to be a requirement of receiving Innoweave support. Ideally, we want evaluations done as part of Innoweave projects to primarily benefit grantees, their beneficiaries, and the communities they serve.

As we pilot new processes on our Social Enterprise stream, we’ll be looking at how we can build this ethos into our operations. For example, our new Social Enterprise Request for Support form will ask organizations how they plan to build a learnings-based approach into their impact assessment, and to offer some thoughts on how Innoweave can help them achieve that goal. As we work on these new ideas over the fall, we encourage feedback to help us learn, adapt, and plan for the next round of platform adjustments for Innoweave. If you have any questions about any of these changes or would like to speak to an Innoweave staff member, please contact us at info@innoweave.ca.