Everyone can visualize the ripples created when a stone is thrown into a lake or a rain drop falls into a puddle. Alas, it’s not nearly as easy to visualize the impact of our charitable investments. Innové Studios utilizes a technique called Ripple Effect Mapping to visualize our impact. Pioneered at the University of Minnesota, Ripple Effect Mapping is a tool that …
The Means Make the Ends
Us humans like to cut to the chase, our thoughts often jumping straight to the end. For Innové Studios that end is the social ventures that are launched. This is understandable. They are exciting, after all! In fact, our last update shared the five winning ventures of Project Flourish, the implementation of the Innové process by First Presbyterian Church of Houston, TX. But the …
Announcing Five New Social Ventures in Houston, Texas!
Research is showing that early-stage and startup social ventures are often providing more impact in the world than established nonprofits, largely because they start by asking themselves “what’s possible”, a very different approach than settling for what’s been done before. The impact from these small projects for good can then lead to large-scale adoption, further growing in impact. Innové Studios mobilizes congregations, getting …
Why Innové Studios is on a Mission to Replicate Our Model into 100 Churches
Made to Flourish is a network of pastors who care deeply about connecting their congregation’s Monday through Friday work with their Sunday faith. Amy Sherman interviewed yours truly about our mission to replicate our model into 100 churches. Here’s the money quote: We looked out in the pews and saw all these incredibly talented people. We had lawyers and accountants …
How One Church Launched 11 Social Ventures
Made to Flourish–a network of pastors who seek to integrate faith and work–recently shared a story of the early days of Innové, written by Amy Sherman. Here’s the money quote: One of the things about the Innové model that Harrell was most excited about was that it would provide practical opportunities for the white-collar professionals in the congregation to be personally …
Have you lost your mind? It’s too risky for a church to fund a startup!
When we first pitched the idea of our church funding social startups, two long-time congregants pulled me aside. They firmly told me that they felt I was unwise to suggest that a church had a role in funding social startups, as the failure rate of startups was too great a risk to justify an investment from a church. I recall …
What are the benefits of the Innové Studios model?
The biggest benefit of the Innové Studios model is…well, the fact that are just so many benefits. For starters: Churches feel a sense of spiritual renewal, there is reestablished trust between the church and their local community, churches witness increased missional impact and focus, there is markedly enhanced volunteerism within the church, wonderful cross-generational mentorship opportunities arise, and, oh yeah, …
The Critical Role that Churches Can Play with Early Stage Social Entrepreneurs
The Stanford Social Innovation Review just began a 10-part series that highlights the incredible benefits of supporting early-stage social entrepreneurs. The first in the series is entitled The Urgency to Fund Early-stage Social Entrepreneurs. Below are a few really critical quotes that have high application to the church: “We see early-stage social enterprises as “catalytic innovators” that produce disruptive innovations primarily because …
Innové Studios Merges Sundays With Mondays
I want you to hear from my friend Tom: “I know first-hand that Innové enables business professionals, like me, to utilize work skills to provide a valued role in helping others. As a marketing and public relations professional, my professional skills are not always an obvious fit in the mission field. Innové challenges that perspective to enable a wide range …
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