The Forbes Fund hosted UpPrize for the first time in 2015 to fund innovative solutions to better serve vulnerable populations in the region. BNY Mellon served as the founding sponsor. A finalist, Pittsburgh-based company Application Verification Inc., received funding to further develop its cloud-based background-screening product, ProVerifyTM, with input from United Way of Southwestern Pennsylvania. The product significantly improves the ease with which nonprofits can manage criminal background checks for volunteers in schools and other settings. The program was so successful that today; the organizations jointly announce a memorandum of understanding, formalizing the launch of a one-year pilot program with United Way of Southwestern PA’s Good Neighbor Center for Volunteering Criminal Clearance Automation Project.
The Forbes Funds hosted UpPrize last year with the goal to foster social innovations that could provide triple bottom line benefits to the community at large, nonprofit and for-profit sectors. Now, a year after the inaugural round of funding, that vision is becoming a reality.