What is the Impact Hub? Impact Hubs are part innovation lab, part business incubator, and part community center. They offer their members a unique ecosystem of resources, inspiration, and collaboration opportunities to grow impact and believe a better world evolves through the combined accomplishments of creative, committed and compassionate individuals focused on a common purpose. The concept sta
rted in London in 2005 and since has grown to a global network of over 80 Impact Hubs, growing at a rate of one new Impact Hub per month in recent years. A list of current and upcoming locations is included in Appendix A. For more information:
• Impact Hub website: http://www.impacthub.net/what-is-impact-hub
• Brief video from Impact Hub Stockholm:
o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NswJJBJZQgE
• Brief video from Impact Hub Oakland (our inspiration):
o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3pUVIZJBlw
• Forbes November 2013 article about growth of Impact Hub movement:
o http://www.forbes.com/sites/devinthorpe/2013/11/21/impact-hub-movement-growing-worldwide/print/
Why an Impact Hub in the Lehigh Valley? Essentially, an Impact Hub consists of three distinct elements:
1) a vibrant community of passionate and entrepreneurial people who share an underlying intention to bring about positive change and act as peers to cross-fertilize and develop their ventures.
2) a source of inspiration that provides meaningful content through thought-provoking events, innovation labs, learning spaces, incubation and facilitated conversations that matter.
3) an inspiring space that offers a flexible and highly functional infrastructure to work, meet, learn and connect. The magic happens when these three elements connect and are brought to life through the Art of Hosting (a methodology for effectively bringing people together to reach consensus and achieve greater impact). There is much happening in the Lehigh Valley in terms of transforming from the old industrial economic base to a more diversified local economy, but much of the work seems to be happening in a fragmented manner without effective collaboration between local governments, the business community and the non-profit (social) sector. Establishing a place such as the Impact Hub could help catalyze the relationships between people in different sectors and with different perspectives, helping to engage the entire community in the transformation that is taking place. There are many stories to tell from across the globe since the first Impact Hub was established in London in 2005 and an Impact Hub in the Lehigh Valley would connect us to this global community of practitioners and resources. In 2014/15, new Impact Hubs have been established in New York City and Washington, DC. Both Impact Hubs are growing rapidly and much can be learned from the people and events happening in both places. The Lehigh Valley has a strong history of working with traditional business incubators such as Ben Franklin Technology Partners and the Bridgeworks Enterprise Center. An Impact Hub in the Lehigh Valley will fill a niche by addressing the needs of social entrepreneurs and bringing together diverse groups of people committed to working on complex local and regional challenges. We have taken the first steps toward becoming a member of the global Impact Hub network by establishing the Lehigh Valley Social Impact Center. The current home of the LV Social Impact Center is at the Pi Incubator space in south Bethlehem. We are currently operating as a co-working and event space for local social entrepreneurs non-profits and social entrepreneurs and have nearly 100 people following our progress. In the coming year, a more detailed market analysis will be done to determine who would likely belong to and/or benefit from an Impact Hub in the LV. In other Impact Hubs, membership & participation has included:
• traditional business enterprises working on social and environmental issues
• social enterprises (B-corporations, etc.))
• non-profit organizations
• social entrepreneurs and independent consultants
• branches of government offices collaborating with the private sector
We will also be mapping the current social enterprise landscape in the Lehigh Valley working with an array of data methodologies and technology tools including Share LV, a joint project of the LV Research Consortium, LV Community Foundation and the Urban Institute, a Washington-based think tank. From this data, we will be creating a map of all of the non-profits, foundations, congregations and other social enterprises in the Lehigh Valley and begin to explore the relationships between them for more effective collaboration. We will also be working on our business plan for moving to a more permanent location and starting our formal application to become a part of the global Impact Hub network. The process can take 6-18 months and includes mentorships from other successful Impact Hubs. If you are interested to learn more or to become a part of this exciting initiative, please contact:
Tom Moroz
LV Social Impact Center
520 Evans Street, Suite 4
Bethlehem, PA 18015
[email protected]
cell: 212-928-8180
Or, just stop in and visit us. We’re located on the 2nd floor of the Cantelmi Hardware building and just below the Bethlehem Yoga Loft and someone is usually there between 9am – 5pm (call number above first, just to be sure)
Appendix A – Impact Hub Locations
Currently, there are 81 Impact Hubs globally and new Impact Hubs are opening at a rate of one per month. Impact Hubs are generally locally owned, but there are some cases of multi-Impact Hub ownership. For example, in the U.S., Mission Hubs LLC owns several Impact Hubs, including the Impact Hubs in San Francisco, New York, and Washington DC. Impact Hubs can be structured as for-profit companies, non-profit organizations or a hybrid or combination of the two. To become an Impact Hub, it is necessary to go through a multi-step application process that can take 6-18 months. Once approved, each local Impact Hub becomes a voting member of the Impact Hub Association, a non-governmental organization registered in Austria. Each local Impact Hub has an equal vote in decisions made by the Association, no matter the size of the local Impact Hub. North America
• Seattle, San Francisco, Oakland, Berkley, Los Angeles, Honolulu
• Salt Lake City, Boulder, Chicago, Austin, Minneapolis,
• Ottawa, Halifax
• Boston, New York, Washington DC
Central / South America
• Mexico City, Oaxaca
• Bogota, Caracas, Lima, Sao Paolo (3 altogether in Brazil)
Europe
• London (3), Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Munich, Zurich, Italy (5), Vienna, Berlin
• Madrid, Barcelona, Bratislava, Zagreb, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Prague, Belgrade, Bucharest, Odessa, Athens, Lisbon, Budapest, Yerevan, Geneva,
Other Global
• Tel Aviv, Moscow, Johannesburg, Singapore, Accra, Lagos, Taipei, Kyoto, Manila, Tokyo, Kuala Lumpur, Khatoum, Dubai,
Upcoming
• Paris, Hamburg, Shanghai, Lehigh Valley?
