URBAN INNOVATION21

Ui21 internship program:during the 2-year grant support from the richard king mellon foundation, ui21 has surpassed its goal of placing 200 interns with innovation economy companies. Since 2015, ui21 has placed a total of 395 interns in all our internship programs. In the fall of 2017, ui21 provided 24 paid fall internships for students from our educational institutions (community college of allegheny county, duquesne university, point park university, and carlow university). 16 of these interns were placed with pckiz companies; 1 intern was placed with kiva pittsburgh; 5 interns were placed with citizen science lab; and 2 interns were placed with ui21 as support interns. 60% of the interns are women and 35% are underrepresented minorities.

Pittsburgh central keystone innovation zone:through its pittsburgh central keystone innovation zone (pckiz) program, ui21 continues to maintain its position as the region's second largest provider of incentives to innovation based businesses. Since january 2016, we have added 32 new pckiz companies. In 2016, we provided $1,156,110 in tax credit awards to pckiz companies. 47 pckiz companies have relocated or began startup in the greater hill district/uptown since may 2013, and 26 of these companies are still active. The pckiz program continues to do exceptionally well. We are the second largest provider of incentives to startup high growth companies in the region. In the last budget, the tax credit allocation was reduced. Companies that qualify for the pckiz tax credit will receive a cash award that is approximately 80% of total cash amount instead of 95%.kiva:kiva pittsburgh is an initiative of kiva, an international nonprofit organization founded in 2005 and based in san francisco, ca, managed locally by ui21. Kiva pittsburgh brings kiva's unique crowdfunded micro-loans to pittsburgh's small business owners who may not otherwise have access to credit due to the entrepreneur's length of time in business, poor or short credit history, or innovative business type or model. After serving as a kiva trustee for several years, ui21 became the host organization for the kiva pittsburgh initiative. Since the partnership began in july 2016, sixty loans have been disbursed to pittsburgh area businesses, including three endorsed by ui21 in the organization's target communities. In addition, kiva pittsburgh has provided numerous business seminars on crowdfunding and other business topics to the public at large.