On April 26th, 2019, 120 people left their 40+ hour work week, showed up at CCAD’s Crane Center and committed an entire weekend to take a brand new social impact idea into reality at the sold-out GiveBackHack Columbus 2019.
GiveBackHack is the launchpad for social innovation. Born right here in Columbus and generously hosted by the Columbus College of Art and Design for five years in a row, GiveBackHack connects the tech and social impact communities – two groups that do not come together often enough – to learn from each other for the benefit of both. It blends startup concepts – rapid prototyping, iteration, risk tolerance – with domain expertise in the social impact space to create the building blocks for social innovation. Participants come to the weekend with a brand new or partially-vetted idea for a social enterprise and leave with the first stages of a user-validated product, and business & impact models.
The mission of GiveBackHack was only accomplished through the generous support of our sponsors, including our two sustaining sponsors: IGS and the United Way of Central Ohio. In their support of GiveBackHack, they not only provided funds that allowed GiveBackHack to happen. Along with The Columbus Foundation, they also funded entrepreneurs directly to help citizens move their social impact products forward.
In addition to the critical support of our sponsors, GiveBackHack would not happen without our impressive and ambitious Columbus organizing team. These talented folks pulled off the best GiveBackHack the world has seen yet! Huge thank you to Yi-Ruei Chen, Lindsay Cronin, Derek DeHart, Bailey Fullwiler, Rachyl Kershaw, Mike Letscher, Clayton Nelson, Chase Petrie, Emily Stuhldreher, and Gabby Torres!
