Last week, Providence Mayor Jorge Elorza announced the rebirth of the Design Catalyst, an application-based funding program that aims to help small, Providence-based design businesses get a leg up.
It’s run thanks to a partnership between DesignxRI, a nonprofit economic development organization, the city of Providence, RISD and Real Jobs RI, a state Department of Labor and Training program. It's most recent cohort ran from 2015-2016.
The newer version of the program offers a total of $90,000 to Providence-based “micro” enterprises (less than five employees) with Providence-based owners. Each accepted business can receive up to $15,000 in grants.
“When the city figured they had funds to invest in this, we kicked into action,” said DesignxRI founder and CEO Lisa Carnevale.
The goal of the project is to spur the "hotbed of design activity" in Rhode Island and Providence, which "has the third largest percentage of creative sector jobs in the country, after New York and California," at places like Studio Endo and Focal Upright, to name a few.
"We are home to an increasing number of designers and design businesses, and house many design schools, including one of the world’s most recognized design institutions," the program's website states. "The Providence Design Catalyst program will continue to catalyze this design business growth, and showcase the innovative and dynamic design talent brewing in this city," and ultimately "creates vital momentum for sustained business growth."
However, plans on resurrecting the fund were long gestating. “There was a group of us, maybe in 2015, that had been talking about [something like this],” Carnevale added. “It stems back quite a while before that.”
The question was, how would the group create a program that would foster accountability for participants while providing the necessary funds for growth? The development team landed on a milestone-based grant system that requires applicants to develop a list of goals for their business to complete during the four-month duration of the program.
During that time, accepted participants are given a business partner, who helps them achieve their outlined milestones. In addition to funding, participants have access to workshops and both professional and business development.
Beyond the aforementioned geographic and business specifications, the Design Catalyst leadership team has additional requirements. “Just to get cleared to be considered, [we have] our own rubric for how they’re evaluated against that project proposal,” Carnevale continued. “Will [applicants' milestones] help grow, start and sustain, expand the company? Will this project help sustain the businesses?”
Historically, Carnevale added, the program has done just that. “We have some history we could … look at in terms of examples,” Carnevale said. “The 17 business that went through it in the first round had expanded product line [and] used the time to work further on a special product line and bring it to market.” Others purchased equipment to bring product crafting in-house or increased the number of employees. Some participating businesses “literally changed their market,” Carnevale added. Regardless, all enterprises hit their milestones and 25 percent received additional funding from other sources. Notable participants included Sproutel, Nest Homeware and Atelier Rosenkrantz, among others.
Ultimately, the companies who receive these funds are those “people who we think we can really invest in,” Carnevale said, and interest in the program is already high.
Applications are open through Dec. 8 at 3:00p.m.
