Innovation Sprint Cohorts
Creating innovative solutions together
Quick Links: Get the Details I Select Your Cohort I Meet Your Facilitator I Apply
It’s one thing to have a good idea. It’s quite another to see that idea come to life.
The best ideas take tenacity, creativity, empathy with those you serve, and access to funding and people who care about the same cause.
Innovation Sprint Cohorts are designed to integrate all these things to bring your innovation to the world!
Here are the details:
- Cost: Free to participate besides the July in-person event (a $3,000 value funded by a generous donor)
- Time Commitment: Monthly 1.5 hour virtual meeting for 6 months starting in February 2026 along with assignments to be done related to your innovation project and collaborative opportunities
- Event: Attend the 2-day in-person Innovation Solutions Conference in July of 2026. The event will be held in a US-based gateway city (to be determined based on cohort make-up). You are responsible for travel, hotel, and an event fee of approximately $500.00.
- Outcome: You will move your idea forward and find ways to collaborate with others who are doing similar things.
- Funding Potential: You will have the opportunity to participate in developing a joint foundation grant proposal that can be submitted to the foundations of your cohort’s choice at the end of the 6 months.
Explore the Potential Cohorts
After three years of reviewing innovation grant proposals, we have identified strategic areas where many Missio Nexus members are working on similar or related efforts. Many times, the organizations don’t even know who else is passionate about a certain idea or approach. These cohorts are designed to curate some of those groups and give you a chance to innovate together and pursue your ideas.
Below are 6 potential cohorts. We can only do 3 in early 2026. That means that the first three to be fully subscribed to will be our inaugural class of Innovation Sprint Cohorts. If this experiment is successful, we may do more in the future but there is no guarantee.
If you are doing work in one of these areas, please fill out the form and indicate your interest:
Cohort 1
Hackathons, Incubators and Accelerators: Organizations bringing people together to innovate through events and programs designed to give innovators space to work on new ideas.
Cohort 2
Mental Health: Organizations seeking to support the mental health of mission staff or providing mental health programs/services to beneficiaries.
Cohort 3
Global Mobilization: Organizations who are seeking to recruit missionaries from a diverse set of sending countries and are seeking a sustainable approach for their work.
Cohort 4
Refugees, Immigrants and Diaspora: Organizations developing innovative approaches to supporting people on the move.
Cohort 5
Media in the Muslim World: Organizations utilizing multi-media in innovative ways to engage Muslim audiences.
Cohort 6
Mobile Apps for Evangelism and Discipleship: Organizations who are developing apps focused on reaching the lost and growing the Church.
Innovation Sprint Cohorts
Meet Your Facilitator – Jon Hirst
With over 25 years of experience leading innovation efforts in global ministry, Jon is committed to helping nonprofits to explore how they can explore new ideas, identify areas for growth and pivot to meet new opportunities.
Jon brings together a unique mix of innovation leadership, marketing & branding experience, and technology expertise to help ministries to reimagine ministry approaches in the face of disruption. He is a trainer for the Seeds Innovation Lab, a facilitator for CoStarters, and has completed the MITx Disciplined Entrepreneurship Course.
He has helped write four books and regularly writes and speaks on topics related to innovation and new approaches to ministry. Currently he serves as the Founder and Chief Innovation Officer at Innovation in Mission, a fractional innovation leader service. In the past he served as Chief Innovation Officer for SIL Global, CEO of Global Mapping International, Communications Director for Reach Beyond, along with other ministry, business as mission and start-up roles.
Jon lives in Wisconsin with his wife Mindy, three kids and three dogs. He grew up as a missionary kid in Argentina and Venezuela and has traveled in 30 countries in support of global mission.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonhirst/
Innovation Substack: https://innovationinmission.substack.com