How We Help
The key is to identify high-impact initiatives — those with a real, positive effect on groups in need that can be scaled. An initiative isn’t the innovation — it’s the innovation connected to the need. That connection is the pathway to betterment: the business planning, project management, and execution that turns a good idea into something that actually reaches the people it’s meant to help.
From Innovation to Impact
Every P2B initiative follows the same basic path — from two starting points, to a single commitment, to a defined sequence of work.
the innovation connected to the need
Our Process
We find initiatives through ongoing market scanning — staying close to both innovation networks and centers of need. Innovation networks include incubators and accelerators, entrepreneur programs, maker spaces, high schools, colleges, universities, and technical schools, STEM programs, start-up communities, and more, and innovation itself can emerge from any sector. Centers of need span underserved and underrepresented groups across nearly every part of society and the environment.
Innovation Networks We Watch
- Health & Wellness
- Education & Literacy
- Water, Sanitation & Hygiene
- Food & Agriculture
- Renewables — Energy & Low-Carbon Tech
- Urban Mobility & Public Infrastructure
- Conservation & Biodiversity
- Circular Economy & Materials
- Community & Social Programs
- Technology & Research Tools
- Disaster Resilience & Safety
- Inclusive Services & Accessibility
Centers of Need We Watch
- Children & Youth
- Women’s Justice & Equality
- Low-Income & Marginalized Households
- People with Disabilities & Special Needs
- Rural Communities & Farmers
- Healthcare Systems & Patients
- Urban Residents & Neighborhoods
- Clean/Sustainable Energy & Industry Actors
- Indigenous & Local Communities
- Marine & Terrestrial Ecosystems
When an innovation and a need connect around a promising idea, it becomes an emerging initiative. From there, P2B leads project planning and opportunity analysis alongside the innovator and the people or organizations closest to the need, building toward a business plan for the initiative. Once we’ve evaluated that plan, P2B may commit to funding the initiative and providing resources, and works with our network of donors to bring in additional support.
The Identification → Validation & Commitment Loop
Finding the right initiative and carrying it through to execution isn’t a straight line — it’s two connected loops. The upper loop keeps watch for a genuine connection between an innovation and a need; the lower loop turns that connection into a funded, managed initiative.
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A Comprehensive Evaluation, from Multiple Perspectives
Before P2B commits, every initiative is evaluated through a six-part framework we call the 6C model — adapted to each initiative from a rigorous strategic-planning approach used in the for-profit world. We examine:
- CreationThe initiative itself: the innovation connected to a need
- CollaboratorsThe innovators, suppliers, and supporters behind it
- CommunityThe vulnerable population it aims to help
- CompetitionOther causes and competing uses of funds
- ConditionsThe economic, regulatory, and philanthropic climate around it
- ConductIts purpose, its path from innovation to impact, and a description of the activities required to get there
Looking at an initiative through these lenses — rather than any one alone — is what lets us find connections to build pathways, and highlights challenges that look better on paper than they’d perform in practice.
Types of Support We Provide
Once we commit, our support isn’t limited to a check. Depending on what an initiative needs, P2B provides cash grants, project management, mentoring, networking, and business advisory services — the same toolkit we’ve used for years building businesses in the for-profit world, applied here to help good ideas succeed.