SmartJob is a global company dedicated to closing the disability wealth gap by catalyzing employment through innovation.
There’s a
nearly 2 trillion dollar hole
due to the absence of people with disabilities in the labor market.
SmartJob serves as a first-of-its-kind social impact consultant and trusted source of market intelligence for donors and investors in the 1 billion+ person global disability market.
We scout, source, advise, and support social entrepreneurs and early stage companies that are committed and focused on profound disability impact.
We do this through our relationship with a like-minded global community of disability tech accelerators, thought leaders, and innovators.
We focus our work on identifying entrepreneurs and companies at their earliest stages that possess promising potential for driving value and impact to improve the lives of those with disabilities and close the disability wealth gap.
We seek to link these entrepreneurs and companies to various sources of blended capital and support, to build a scalable marketplace for investment in disability.
SmartJob has established extensive networks and maintains trusted relationships throughout the disability community. We partner with leaders across the disability community to advise and support disability-led entrepreneurship programs and to build robust pipelines to talented disability entrepreneurs.
Disability underemployment and unemployment have remained persistently high worldwide for decades and people with disabilities experience crisis level unemployment.
Plus, people with disabilities are less likely than their non-disabled peers to have access to technology, limiting access to employment, to attaining better jobs, and to working in sectors that are adaptable when economic crises hit.
Of working-age Americans with a disability, less than one third participate in the workforce.
We can change this. And not by relying on employers or government programs to tackle these problems alone. But by galvanizing innovation and cooperation to interrupt poverty in a sustainable way and to contribute meaningfully to a new era of employment.
By unleashing the power of capital markets for impact, together we can build smart jobs, the kind that are future proof, flexible, accessible, and designed to improve the employment experience from the start.
Leveraging a market-based approach, SmartJob advises and consults donors and impact investors in solutions that:
— Break through persistent barriers that have trapped people with disabilities in joblessness and are deepening a poverty crisis.
— Place resources in the hands of entrepreneurs with disabilities.
— And empower early stage companies with viable solutions to the unemployment and underemployment of people with disabilities.
SmartJob Impact
SmartJob is a scouting and deal-sourcing engine, identifying and finding the most viable entrepreneurs and ideas in the world to reduce the low labor force participation of people with disabilities, and through due diligence, advising, and referral, links them with capital to allow people with disabilities to become full participants in the global economy and the future of work.
Our Services
SmartJob provides customized advisory services to donors and impact investors looking to support early-stage companies in the disability market, and to build a global ecosystem for inclusive innovation and design.
Through our extensive networks, we search for the most innovative, early-stage companies in the world led by people with disabilities, or with connections to the disability market and guided by principles of inclusive and universal design. Then, we help connect them with capital. We provide concierge services around deal sourcing and analysis, impact evaluation, measurement, and reporting to donors, investors, and funds.
With focused guidance, we assist donors and investors in understanding and evaluating the unique value proposition presented by the untapped disability market.
SmartJob Fund at ImpactAssets
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SmartJob has entered into a historic partnership with ImpactAssets, the world-leading facilitator of direct impact investing through a Donor Advised Fund.
SmartJob acts as a consultant to the first fund within the ImpactAssets $1.2 Billion portfolio dedicated to closing the disability wealth gap and increasing disability employment. The SmartJob Fund at ImpactAssets will invest in disability-led solutions and early stage companies.
SmartJob Impact Criteria and Evaluation
We know that we are only as good as what we measure. That is why we are advancing a first of its kind advising, diligencing, and impact rating methodology and output measurement process.
The impact investments and partnerships that we identify will enable people with disabilities to access capital, supports, and products to gain meaningful employment, whether by starting or scaling early stage companies, catalyzing the availability of improved workplace technologies, or improving access to savings and credit.
The result will be measurable improvements in labor market participation and reduction in disability poverty.
Global Mission
In 2015, world leaders agreed to 17 Global Goals known as the Sustainable Development Goals or SDGs to create a better world by 2030, by ending poverty, fighting inequality, and addressing the urgency of climate change. The goals are meant to guide governments, businesses, civil society, and the general public to work together toward driving impact. In addition to other impact criteria, the goals guide SmartJob’s investment strategy.
Human capital is a rich asset that needs to be unlocked and harnessed for good to tackle the existential challenges of the next century, to meet the UN SDGs head on, and to rectify previous market failures.
