Center for Creative Economy

“There are no committees with authority to act on behalf of the board.”

“Form 990 is reviewed by the treasurer and executive director before it is filed. The board as a whole does not review the 990 before filing.”

“Directors sign a written form when they join the board.”

“Board votes on and approves budget annually, which includes annual compensation amount for the executive director.”

“The organization files governing documents, program descriptions and financial information with the north carolina department of the secretary of state on an annual basis. All of the aforementioned information can be accessed by the public at the nc secretary of state website.”

“Our mission: to launch, grow, and accelerate creative entrepreneurs and business owners. Our vision for the community: - creatives will seek out and set up businesses in winston-salem - the city is known as an ideal place for creatives to both learn artistic skills and set up creative enterprises - winston-salem is an important hub and market for creative business. Our vision for center for creative economy: -to be known as a premier economic development organization that is building the creative economy and creative community in winston-salem, the triad, north carolina, and the southeast region.”

“In 2020 the center for creative economy continued the rebranded of its programs and hosted the velocity accelerator for creative businesses for the second year. This is the fifth consecutive year of hosting an accelerator; and the second under our rebranded name of velocity. This new brand was developed in 2019 along with a new robust curriculum sourced exclusively by cce. The organization markets to creative businesses in nc, and across the southeast and internationally. The intensive 10-week program delivers a high impact business skill curriculum for serious entrepreneurs. It is taught in a hybrid format both online and in person for those in winston-salem. In addition, velocity provides a customized experience where startups are connected with experienced mentors to critically analyze their business models, financials, and marketing strategies. Participants learn how to articulate their why, mission and value proposition. Velocity also provides the tools and training in entrepreneurial mindset, product, market fit, legal advice, investor strategy, and pitching. The program culminates in velocity week where all participants come to winston salem, nc for an immersive in person experience of workshops and in person mentoring. Velocity week concludes with a public demo day open to the community, and a pitch competition where three companies are chosen to split 50,000 in seed stage investment.”

“Kinetic boot camp- cce launched this new program in march 2020. Kinetic is a boot camp for idea stage entrepreneurs who need help getting started and taking necessary next steps to launch a business. This four-week boot camp focuses on individuals interested in learning about the mechanics of creating and running a business. Kinetic provides the tools and training in entrepreneurial mindset and participants learn how to identify their customers, validate their idea, develop a business model, and build a financial forecast. The mission of the new kinetic program is to provide a bridge and pathway for early-stage entrepreneurs to learn how to start. We provide milestones for them to achieve along the way. Historically, cce has served a majority of women, people of color, and historically underserved entrepreneurs. Kinetic will intentionally focus on this demographic as we build and grow the program. In 2020, cce was impacted by covid in march 2020. The kinetic boot camp was two weeks into its program. Everything had to be converted to an online format. All lessons were moved to zoom, and the mentor meetings were held remotely via google hang outs or zoom. The final pitches and presentations also had to be held remotely. This caused the cce team to have to move to an online format for judging and scoring. This was very beneficial as the scores are tabulated instantly instead of counting all the paper records. Given all the disruptions from covid, cce found its stride and was able to continue with all programs. Momentum events were moved to online zoom meetings (from in person lunches) during april - november. And velocity is always offered in a hybrid format, so that did not require too many changes. However, have had to quickly learn the best practices of remote teaching and learning. Cce is continuing to thrive despite covid 19”