Comcast NBCU Partners with Fast Forward Helping Tech Scale Impact
March 05, 2018
On March 6th and 7th in San Francisco, Comcast NBCUniversal joined Fast Forward as a Summit partner for the second Accelerate Good Global (AGG ‘18) – a sector-defining event that unites tech nonprofit entrepreneurs, technology leaders and philanthropists who believe in leveraging tech for good.
Fast Forward is a nonprofit tech accelerator that invests in entrepreneurs who are building technology to scale impact. Since 2014, Fast Forward has accelerated 31 tech nonprofits that now collectively impact over 35 million lives. Like a typical tech startup, tech nonprofits build products using technology, but they scale for impact instead of profit. Over 500 attendees came together to champion the ‘tech for good’ ecosystem, build community, challenge norms and cultivate new solutions to build a next-generation social sector. The onstage panels and keynotes featured diverse tech nonprofit entrepreneurs who are applying technology to solve community challenges in the areas of civic engagement, education, healthcare, and human rights.
Day one of AGG ‘18 kicked off with inspiring words from social impact tech luminaries like Nancy Lublin, Founder & CEO of Crisis Text Line – a tech nonprofit providing free crisis intervention via text message— and DeRay McKesson, Co-Founder of We The Protestors and Fast Forward Accelerator alumni. The afternoon featured a spirited conversation on the growth of civic tech start-ups, and new methods grantees and funders in this space can employ to ensure sustainability of this burgeoning sector. Prominent voices included Jonathan Sotsky, Director of Strategy & Assessment at Knight Foundation, Tiana Epps-Johnson, Founder & Executive Director of the Center for Technology & Civic Life, and Meghan Nesbit, Director of Nonprofit Market Development at Twilio, as moderator.
Day two of AGG ‘18 returned with an equally incredible line up of nonprofit tech innovators and diverse philanthropists supporting technology for social impact. Comcast’s VP of Engineering, Kalpa Subramanian, moderated a diverse tech talent pipeline discussion with Laura Gómez, Founder & CEO of Atipica and Founding Advisor to Project Include, Leanne Pittsford, Founder of Lesbians Who Tech, and Shannon Farley, Co-Founder of Fast Forward. The group compared diverse tech talent pipeline trends, successes, challenges and opportunities across both nonprofit and for-profit sectors. Later, Megan Smith, CEO of Shift7, and Sixto Cancel, Founder & CEO of Think of Us, spoke with Journalist Charles Duhigg of the New York Times, about how their partnership supports Think of Us’ mission to improve foster care systems and change the lives of foster youth across the country.
As a company uniquely positioned to inform, empower, and inspire, Comcast NBCUniversal embraces opportunities like Accelerate Good Global to create conversation and mobilize action to address some of the nation’s most critical issues through technology. Through incredible partners like Fast Forward, we believe tech nonprofits can power solutions to create social impact locally and globally.
Check out more photos of Accelerate Good Global here, and see #ComcastNBCUImpact and #AGG18 for more firsthand accounts.
