UpLift Eligibility Screen

UpLift Eligibility Screen

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Thank you for your interest in applying to UpLift: An Early Stage Sprint. The Eligibility Screening period is now open and runs continuously for ongoing cohorts.

Please be sure to check our website for cohort dates, their relevant Eligibility Screen submission dates, and program information sessions.

UpStart aspires to build an entrepreneurial ecosystem that embodies and drives toward greater diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice. Our commitment to diversity in programming can be found here.

UpStart is also committed to being fully inclusive in our process. Please see preparation step 3 below for instructions on how to submit video messages in place of written responses. Any further accommodation requests can be sent to accessibility@upstartlab.org.

To prepare for this screen:

Set aside approximately 1-1.5 hours to complete this screen. Our intention is for you to use documents that you already have. We do not expect you to create new documents for this portion of the process.
Review the venture and leader eligibility criteria to better understand how your submission will be reviewed.
Video submissions are allowed in place of any long-form written response. To submit a video response, you will need to record a video and save it in a way that can be accessed by someone outside of your organization through a URL. Please paste the URL of your video response directly into the corresponding answer’s text box. (You may use any platform you desire to record your video. Some recommendations include Vimeo, Zoom, and Google Meet.) For technical support saving and/or sharing videos as a URL, please contact allisond@upstartlab.org.

Contact Information

Salutation

Fill in:

What are your pronouns?

e.g. she/her, they/them, he/him, xe/xir, no pronouns, etc.

First name

Last name

Email address

Venture name

Job title

Program Participation

Please denote your preferred cohort start date

Summer 2024 (July 2024 - September 2024)Spring 2025 (February 2025 - May 2025)

Does your venture have a co-leadership model?

YesNo

Will your co-leader be participating in the UpLift program?

YesNo

Co-leader's first name

Co-leader's last name

Co-leader's email address

Question #1

1. Please share the mission and/or vision of your organization.

At Early Stage UpStart understands the following to be true:

Venture can articulate the impact it seeks to achieve through a mission and or vision statement

Question #2

2. Please indicate what makes your work supportive of a thriving Jewish community. This could be from meeting a specific need of the Jewish community AND/OR meeting a community need Jewishly.

a. In 90-100 words, or a 60-90 second video, describe how you contribute to at least ONE of the following: - Thanks to your work, community practices are informed by Jewish tradition and culture. - Thanks to your work, there is ample opportunity for community members to express their expansive Jewish identity, practice, and culture. - Thanks to your work, opportunities to engage in traditional Jewish life are accessible and inclusive. Traditional Jewish spaces are welcoming to all Jewish people.

b. In addition, please provide evidence that shows proof of the above. [Examples of evidence may include: Examples of resources used in your offerings, testimonials from participants, documentation of your venture’s values, etc.]

You may upload up to 5 separate attachments in the form of PDFs. Add additional files by clicking "Add another response" below.

At Early Stage UpStart understands the following to be true:

Venture is evaluating the initial impact and or contribution it makes (or will make) to a thriving Jewish community

Question #3

3. Please share evidence that shows how your venture articulates and arrives at your value proposition.

a. Complete the following sentence: [name of venture] seeks to address [the challenge you have identified] by providing [the value you provide] to [your target audience].

b. In addition, you may upload documents that show further evidence. [Examples of evidence may include: Community Mapping Assessment, list of others in the field, audience persona, focus group data, etc.]

You may upload up to 5 separate attachments in the form of PDFs. Add additional files by clicking "Add another response" below.

At Early Stage, UpStart understands the following to be true:

Venture is actively testing understanding of the challenge for which the venture seeks to solve
Venture is exploring the work of others in the field to understand how to best situate themselves as having a unique offering
Venture is working to articulate their primary audience
Most users of the offering are new, and no reputation has formed towards the venture's value

Question #4

4. Please share evidence indicating how you know that the need you seek to address is a prevalent need.

a. I have asked my community members for feedback in order to create my programming/offering.

YesNo

b. After programming/offerings/events, I ask about participant satisfaction.

YesNo

c. Please upload documentation that shows evidence of the questions above. [Examples of evidence may include: Questions from surveys/focus groups, schedule of surveys/focus groups, lists/groupings of community members surveyed, etc.]

You may upload up to 5 separate attachments in the form of PDFs. Add additional files by clicking "Add another response" below.

At Early Stage, UpStart understands the following to be true:

The venture is beginning to articulate the importance of regularly examining community needs for the sake of evaluating its impact
Preparing to use basic surveys to understand satisfaction of participants

Question #5

5. Please share evidence that your venture is financially stable at this stage. a. Fill in the following fields:

i. Total expenses for one cycle of offerings

ii. Total revenue

iii. Cash reserves

iv. List of grants/contracts signed or secured

b. Please upload documentation that shows evidence of your financial stability. [Examples of evidence may include: Budget printout, expenses and revenue statements, grant/contract agreements, etc.]

You may upload up to 5 separate attachments in the form of PDFs. Add additional files by clicking "Add another response" below.

At Early Stage, UpStart understands the following to be true:

The venture has received its first grant/contract at an amount that can shift organizational planning
The venture can cover expenses for one full offering cycle, through a combination of the following:
Cash-on-hand
Revenue
List of grants/contracts signed or secured

Question #6

6. Please share evidence that your venture has sufficient people and leadership to support the work at this stage. a. Fill out the following:

i. Do you have a full-time, dedicated staff person?

YesNo

Full-Time Staff Member

First name

Last name

Job title

ii. List any other staff, including their titles:

At Early Stage, UpStart understands the following to be true:

The venture has more than one staff person doing the work of the organization
Staff may not be full-time
The venture staff hold responsibilities across multiple functions of the work

b. Please upload documentation that shows evidence of your staff. [Examples of evidence may include: Documentation referencing venture leader by name, staff list including responsibilities, Founder/ED/CEO job description, list of contracted support, etc., copy of “Who We Are”]

You may upload up to 5 separate attachments in the form of PDFs. Add additional files by clicking "Add another response" below.

At Early Stage, UpStart understands the following to be true:

The venture leader takes on more significant work to move the venture forward
The venture has more than one staff person doing the work of the organization
Staff may not be full-time
The venture staff hold responsibilities across multiple functions of the work

Question #7

7. Please share the names and titles of advisors and/or Board Members that currently support your venture’s work.

At Early Stage, UpStart understands the following to be true:

The venture is considering developing an official board
The venture has some grouping of people who are “advising” the work

Question #8

8. Please let us know how you heard about UpLift.

UpStart Newsletter or Social Media postA friend/colleague shared itUnsureOther

Person's Name

Person's Organizational Affiliation

Please describe:

Venture Information

The following questions ask about your venture. This helps us to understand whether our programs and events are effective for our venture audience.

Venture website

Venture's legal status

501c3	Fiscally Sponsored	LLC	B Corps
501c4	For-profit	No legal status	Other

Fiscal Sponsor organization

Fiscal Sponsor contact name

Fiscal Sponsor contact email

Describe your venture's legal status:

Venture Headquarters

If your venture has multiple satellite locations, please select where your headquarters are located.

City

Country

State

Provinces

State/Province

Postal Code

Geographic area(s) served

InternationalNationalRegionalStatewideCitywide

Please specify country

Example: USA

Please specify region

Example: Midwest

Please specify state

Example: Illinois

Please specify city

Example: Chicago, Illinois

Area of Community Support (Please select all that apply)

Advocacy	Arts & Culture	Community Building
Disability Justice	Education	Environment
Financial Services	Gender Focus	Israel
Journalism/Media/Communications	LGBTQ+	Racial Justice
Social Change	Social Services	Spirituality
Other

Please describe:

Type of Organization (Please select all that apply)

Camp	Day School/Yeshiva
Informal Education	Supplemental Education (Hebrew School, Religious Schools)
Synagogue	Other

Please describe:

Demographic Served (Please select all that apply)

BIPOC (Black/Indigenous/ People of Color)	College Students	Early Childhood
Families	Female Identified	Grandparents
Interfaith	JOCSM (Jews of Color/ Sephardi/Mizrahi)	LGBTQ+
Parents/Caregivers	People with disabilities	Singles
Teens	Young Adults	Other

Please describe:

The following are Venture Stages as defined by UpStart:

Idea Stage

The idea stage is the first step to starting a venture. A seed has been planted and some ideas are beginning to be tested. The social entrepreneur is still asking questions about the landscape and the market. They have emerging ideas about the social problem they hope to address and can describe what they hope their social impact might be.

Early Stage

Experimentation, exploration and testing are key in the early stage. Some ideas from the idea stage have come to fruition and others are still being developed or refined. The development of the venture and the skillset of its leader in this stage vary widely. The venture may have secured some investors or have a minimalist structure in place. The venture has a clear understanding of the social problem it exists to address and can articulate how it’s activities will lead to positive change.

Growth Stage

Ventures at Growth Stage are focused either on planning for growth or stabilizing at their current size. For any particular venture, this may be demonstrated through steady revenue, an advisory board, formal staff structures, establishing partnerships and collaborations and proven social impact. This stage also involves looking further into the future, such as developing a sustainability or strategic plan for the venture. This stage of the venture comes with a decision point about growth: is the venture preparing to grow and scale at this point? The venture is beginning to be able to understand and demonstrate its social impact using evaluation practices.

Mezzanine Stage

A venture in this stage has achieved a certain level of maturity and possibly a significant financial footprint. In the context of UpStart, a venture in the mezzanine stage may need support with an innovation or adding projects to an otherwise established operation. Elements of the organization may return to the Early or Growth stage of the pipeline. At this stage the venture is not only able to demonstrate its social impact but is using measurement, evaluation and learning practices to inform decisions that improve and deepen its work.

If you need further assistance identifying your stage, please refer to our "What is Your Stage" quiz here!

What stage of organizational development is your venture at currently?

Idea stageEarly stageGrowth stageMezzanine stageNot sure

Individual Information

This section asks some questions about you personally. This helps us to understand whether our programs and events are effective for all participants.

Personal email address

Identity

Completion of this section is optional and does not impact our decision on your selection. We use this information to understand whether our programs and events are effective for all participants (and to understand and plan when our programming falls short). This information will be confidential and used for general reporting purposes without identifying individual responses.

What is your gender? If you prefer not to say, skip this question.

WomanManNonbinary, Two-Spirit, third gender, agender or another gender or gendersPrefer to self-describe:

Prefer to self-describe:

How do you racially identify? Choose all that apply. If you prefer not to say, skip this question.

Black or African American	African
Hispanic or Latina/o/x	Asian or Asian American
Middle Eastern	North African
White or European American	Native American, First Nation, or Indigenous American
Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander	Another race not listed

Another race not listed:

Do you identify as Jewish (culturally, religiously, racially or ethnically)?
If you prefer not to say, skip this question.

YesNo

Do you identify with any of the following Jewish heritages? Choose all that apply. If you

prefer not to say or this is not applicable to you, skip this question.

AshkenaziMizrachiSephardiPrefer to self-describe

Prefer to self describe:

Do you identify as a person with disability/ies? If you prefer not to say, skip this question.

YesNoPrefer to self-describe:

Prefer to self-describe:

Do you identify as part of the LGBTQIA+ community? If you prefer not to say, skip this question.

YesNoPrefer to self-describe:

Prefer to self-describe:

Regarding your identity, is there anything else that you would like us to know?

Geography

UpStart would like to understand whether you are located in the same place as your venture headquarters. Please fill out the following based on your home location.

City

Country

State

Provinces

State/Province

Postal Code

Professional Information

How many years of professional work experience do you have?

Are you (one of) the founder(s) of this venture?

YesNo

Is this the first venture you have founded?

YesNo

What is your current role level?

Individual contributorManager with at least one direct reportManager of managersExecutive / Leadership teamBoard member

Which functional area in the venture do you work in? Choose all that apply.

Governance (e.g., Board member)	Fundraising
Finance	Human Resources & People
Marketing & Brand	Measurement & Evaluation
Programming / service delivery	Prefer to self-describe

Prefer to self-describe:

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If you have any questions, please contact ventures@upstartlab.org.