2014 — A Conversation

In 2014, Preston Austin and Alnisa Allgood were having a conversation about the direction of Madison’s flagship festival on technology and entrepreneurship, Forward Festival. That conversation centered around the growing limitations and exclusions of the definition of “entrepreneur” that Madison was leaning in to. The decision was to create an event in Forward Festival that would challenge both the festival and Madison to have a more inclusive definition of entrepreneurship.

2015 — A Summit

In 2015, the first annual Social Good Summit was created and introduced to Forward Festival as its kick-off event. The Summit’s focus was on Redefining Entrepreneurship. More than 100 people gathered to have a transformative conversation with 12 panelists, Amy Gannon as moderator, and each other. The Summit moved major constituents to start talking about more community-driven, regionally-focused, inclusive entrepreneurship.

2016 — Doing More

In 2016, Amy Gannon (Doyenne), Preston Austin (Horizon), and Alnisa Allgood (Collaboration for Good) worked collaboratively to bring the next Social Good Summit. Now that there was a growing body of individuals and organizations interested in doing more and doing better, and the question became how do we Transform Intent into Action. This was the next stage of development, and the event had participant groups come together to create actionable projects. Many projects continued after the event for one-to-three months, but stalled with no true champion.

2017 — An Accelerator

Conversations between the co-chairs of the Summit lead to the creation of a Social Good Accelerator (SGA) pilot. Year One of the pilot focused on the identification, recruitment, support, and progress of up to twenty-five social entrepreneurial ventures. Accelerators can catalyze and catapult organizations in many ways, including: helping them grow their vision, evaluating the stages and phases of their effort, plotting strategies, mastering finances, orchestrating marketing, and tackling logistics. We were laying out a path to build not just accelerator entrepreneurs but community-driven social good. It was a new paradigm, one that moves beyond the singular metric of profit.

2018 — Momentum

The 2017 introduction of a social good accelerator, justly called, the Social Good Accelerator (SGA) was an incredibly success pilot launch, that then lead to more questions. We can help social ventures take one or more steps forward in their ventures, but how do we help them thrive? The formation of Social Good Madison was our response. Social Good Madison is a collaborative initiative with the purpose of building the ways and means for individuals and organizations to grow robust ventures that intentionally operate to address inequalities and expand prosperity. It reduces the barriers to starting new entrepreneurial ventures while providing quality support for systematically disenfranchised communities.