How to Leverage the Resources on this Page

Welcome to the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City (ICIC) Partner Toolkit! We’re excited to work with you to create jobs, income, and wealth for the local community through our small business programs.

This guide is designed to help you share information about the range of programs that ICIC offers to help small businesses thrive. Below you will find graphics and copy to post on social media, as well as sample language to use in your outreach. We welcome your modifications to the materials below and look forward to working together.

See here for more information about all of our programs:

• Initiative for a Competitive Inner City’s Urban Business Initiatives
• ICIC’s UBI 2-pager

 

Social Media Sample Posts

SAMPLE MESSAGE #1: Promotion of Partnership

• LinkedIn & Facebook Post: We’re partnering with [insert Initiative for a Competitive Inner City tag] to connect local entrepreneurs with programs that provide education, training and mentorship to help grow their small businesses. Want to learn more about how you can take part in ICIC’s tuition-free programs and advance your business goals? Visit: [insert link]

LinkedIn Tag: @initiative-for-a-competitive-inner-city; Facebook Tag: @icicorg

• Twitter Post: We’re partnering with @icicorg to connect local entrepreneurs with programs that provide education, training & mentorship to help grow their businesses. Learn more about how ICIC’s tuition-free programs can advance your small business’s goals: [insert link]

• Instagram Post: We’re partnering with @icicorg to connect local entrepreneurs with programs that provide education, training and mentorship to help grow their small businesses. Want to learn more about how you can take part in ICIC’s tuition-free programs and advance your business goals? Visit the link in our bio. [insert link in bio]

 

Digital Assets

See here to download digital assets from each of our Urban Business Initiatives.

 

Social Media Flyers

See here to download social media graphics.

 

Newsletter Insert Language

Example #1:

[Our organization] is partnering with Initiative for a Competitive Inner City (ICIC), a national nonprofit organization dedicated to driving inclusive economic prosperity in under-resourced communities, to connect local entrepreneurs with tuition-free programs that provide education, training and mentorship to help sustainably grow your small businesses.

ICIC’s small business programs include Inner City Capital Connections, Inner City 100, Building for Growth, and partnerships with Goldman Sachs’ 10,000 Small Businesses, Goldman Sachs’ Black in Business, and Santander Bank’s Cultivate Small Business programs.

To learn more about ICIC and which program is the right fit to help advance your small business goals, visit: [insert link]

 

How to get involved?

There are a variety of ways you can get involved with ICIC to strengthen and support the small business community. Please see below for a list of volunteer opportunities and ways to nominate small businesses to our different Urban Business Initiatives.

• Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses (10KSB) – Click here to find out which chapter you’re closest to and support the local small business education program
• Inner City 100 (IC100) – Nominate small businesses in your community to apply for the 2022 IC100 Awards (“Why Nominate?”) and share the award to your network.
• Inner City Capital Connections (ICCC) – Become a regional partner and nominate small businesses in your network to apply to participate in ICCC. Become an ICCC Capital or General Business Coach or present one of our upcoming ICCC Webinars.

 

Upcoming Events

ICIC hosts a variety of events to support and connect the small business community to timely and relevant resources to help them achieve their business goals. Use the links below to find out about our upcoming events:

• 10KSB events page
• IC100 events page
• ICCC Kick-Off Breakfast, and Webinars
• ICAN events page

 

FAQs

Question 1: Are ICIC programs really free?

• Yes! Thanks to the generous support of our sponsors, we are able to offer all of our programs at no cost.

Question 2: Why should I nominate a small business to apply to participate in ICIC programs?

• Nominating a business is the easiest and most direct way to get them involved in an ICIC program. After being nominated, the ICIC team will reach out to the business owner to answer questions and help them through the application process. Nominating a business only takes a moment, whether you choose to submit their contact information through our online forms, or spread the word via social media and your next newsletter. By nominating a business to an ICIC program, you are spreading access to resources that help our small businesses thrive.

Question 3: Who do I contact to know which program is right for the small businesses in my network?

• Cultivate Small Business (CSB): Danielle Anderson, Associate, Cultivate Small Business at danderson@icic.org
• 10,000 Small Businesses (10KSB): Nicaela Chinnaswamy, Director, Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses at nchinnaswamy@icic.org
• Inner City 100 (IC100): Nadia Larasati, Director, Data Strategy & Innovation at nlarasati@icic.org
• Inner City Capital Connections (ICCC): Marynee Pontes, Deputy Director, Inner City Capital Connections at mpontes@icic.org

Question 4: The small businesses I work with need to spend time focusing on the day-to-day needs of their business and barely have enough time to meet these needs. Why should they still consider participating in one of your programs?

• Our programs are designed to fit the schedules of all business owners and thus vary in structure and time commitment. 10KSB is our most structured and time-intensive program, requiring about 120 hours of curriculum and 10 weeks of classes to graduate. ICCC, on the other hand, is our most flexible program, requiring only 40 hours of self-paced work to graduate. Regardless of time commitment, all of our programs provide capacity-building education paired with actionable growth strategies. Learn more about our impact at icic.org/impact-report-2021/

Question 5: Do ICIC programs provide access to capital?

• Yes! Our programs facilitate access to capital through education and introductions to a variety of capital providers, but ICIC does not directly provide capital. However, select small businesses that participate in the Cultivate Small Business program, sponsored by Santander, will be eligible to access two rounds of grants.

Question 6: I’m not able to nominate right now, are there other ways I can stay involved with ICIC?

• We understand that you cannot get involved with us right now. Stay tuned for ICIC updates by following us on social media and signing up for our mailing list. We look forward to collaborating with you soon!

 

Our Impact

Read about how ICIC is helping small business owners stay “Open for Business” in our 2022 Impact Report.

 

 

 

Contact

• Cultivate Small Business (CSB)
  • Danielle Anderson, Associate, Cultivate Small Business at danderson@icic.org

• 10,000 Small Businesses (10KSB)
  • Nicaela Chinnaswamy, Director, Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses at nchinnaswamy@icic.org

• Inner City 100 (IC100)
  • Nadia Larasati, Director, Data Strategy & Innovation at nlarasati@icic.org

• Inner City Capital Connections (ICCC)
  • Marynee Pontes, Deputy Director, Inner City Capital Connections at mpontes@icic.org

ICIC is hiring. Click here to view our career opportunities.