North Shore InnoVentures Incubator Receives Nonprofit Excellence Award from
Essex County Community Foundation
Recent awards demonstrate NSIV’s economic value to the North Shore technology community
BEVERLY, Massachusetts, April 21, 2016. North Shore InnoVentures (NSIV), one of New England’s leading technology incubators and business accelerators, announced today that it received a highly competitive award for $7,500 from the Essex County Community Foundation (ECCF) to assess the incubator’s impact on the economic development of Essex County. This follows two recent $5000 capacity-building grants in recognition of NSIV’s contribution to the North Shore community from the Eastern Bank Foundation and the People’s United Community Foundation, and a $165,000 three-year grant from the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center’s IncubateMass program.
“The significance of these recent grants is their validation of the “collaboration for innovation” model that we have developed at NSIV, as well as the economic value that we and our technology startup companies bring to the greater North Shore community,” said Martha Farmer, CEO of North Shore InnoVentures.
NSIV arose from an initiative of community-minded members of the all-volunteer North Shore Technology Council with a vision of fostering technology-driven economic growth. A non-profit organization, NSIV’s mission is to nurture innovative early stage companies and support sustained economic growth in the North Shore region. NSIV generates high quality employment opportunities in life sciencesandcleantech, two of the strongest technology clusters in Massachusetts, and provides creative business acceleration services that increase the success rate for early-stage companies.
The recent grant from the Essex County Community Foundation is to further study and report on the economic impact on Essex County of NSIV and its companies using qualitative as well as quantitative methods.
“Since opening our doors in 2009, NSIV companies have raised more than $160 million in grant and equity funding, generated some 235 permanent jobs and 75 internships for local high school and college students, and filed more than 100 U.S. and foreign patents,” stated Farmer. “But these impressive figures don’t fully measure the impact business incubation can have on a metropolitan area.”
“We know that the presence of a strong technology-focused business incubator has a positive influence on ancillary businesses and services, regional attractiveness, educational programs, business networks, community leadership, and even economic policy development.” continued Farmer. “With this important grant from ECCF, we’ll develop metrics and methodologies to quantify these impacts and help encourage the development of more biotech and cleantech companies within Essex County.”
An example of such impact is the Life Sciences Consortium of the North Shore, a collaboration with four local colleges initiated by NSIV in 2012. The Mass Life Sciences Center in 2014 awarded a $5M grant to upgrade the laboratory equipment at NSIV, North Shore Community College, Salem State University, Gordon College and Endicott College. Students trained on current industry-standard equipment are more readily placed in internships and good jobs in the life sciences industry. In addition to the positive impact on the students, this also aids the growth of local companies, including the startups at NSIV. They don’t have to locate in Cambridge to find talent.
NSIV has been supported in part by local, state and federal government grants that help subsidize the laboratories and services offered to client companies, making them more affordable for startups. NSIV received a 2013 grant of $100,000 from The Cummings Foundation to help support operations of the NSIV biotech and cleantech laboratories housed at the Cummings Center in Beverly. Other private foundations and corporate sponsors also provide support, and philanthropic donations have begun to make a meaningful contribution.
About ECCF
The mission of the Essex County Community Foundation is to strengthen the communities of Essex County. We do this by promoting philanthropy and managing charitable assets, making grants and engaging in strategic community leadership. Since 1998, ECCF and its family of 180 charitable funds have granted over $30 million to nonprofits, schools and students in Essex County and beyond. Our ultimate goal is to have 34 thriving cities and towns in Essex County and to improve the quality of life for the region’s 750,000 residents. For more information, visitwww.eccf.org.
About North Shore InnoVentures
North Shore InnoVentures (NSIV) is a non-profit 501(c) (3) business incubator headquartered at the burgeoning cluster of more than sixty life sciences and cleantech businesses at the Cummings Center in Beverly, MA. NSIV is dedicated to accelerating the growth of innovative early-stage life sciences and cleantech businesses and supporting the economic growth of Boston’s North Shore. Its management, board of directors, advisory board, and mentors bring a wealth of entrepreneurship experience in addition to business development and technical expertise. Further support comes from sponsors who contribute marketing, legal, operational and educational services. https://nsiv.org.
Contacts:
Martha Farmer, Ph.D.
President & CEO
North Shore InnoVentures
508-527-1832
Martha.farmer@nsiv.org
Media:
Paul Sagan
KCSA Strategic Communications
617-852-0495
psagan@kcsa.com
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