Inner City 100 Nomination Process

What is the Inner City 100?

The Inner City 100 recognizes the 100 fastest growing companies in America’s inner cities. Created by the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City (ICIC) twelve years ago, the program spotlights and supports growing companies in urban areas, highlighting the importance of creating healthy inner city economies in order to develop strong urban communities.

Why Nominate Companies?

Participating nominating partners will help inner city businesses gain access to important resources as well as bring positive attention to their host cities and their local economic development initiatives. Nominating partners will be recognized in local press releases and will be invited to send representatives to the Inner City 100 Summit along with the CEOs of the 100 winning companies.

How Do Companies Benefit? 

The Inner City 100 list is featured in BusinessWeek SmallBiz magazine and receives substantial national and local media attention. View the list of 2009 winners in BusinessWeek SmallBiz magazine HERE.

Winners are also invited to attend the Inner City 100 Summit held annually in Boston, Massachusetts. The Summit is a one-day event in the spring that includes a CEO Forum at the Harvard Business School with world-renowned professors and experts and networking and educational sessions, culminating with the Inner City 100 Awards Dinner.

The event receives substantial national and local media attention and provides a variety of opportunities for urban companies such as garnering publicity for your accomplishments, networking with other entrepreneurs and increaseing access to capital. Past winners have cited meeting major investors, winning multi-million dollar contracts, and gaining increased credibility as direct results of appearing on the list.

Eligibility for the 2010 Inner City 100

To apply for the list, comapnies are asked to complete a brief, one-page application form. Companies that qualify are then invited to complete a  survey and provide financial documentation to verify self-reported sales figures.  

To Qualify for the 2010 Inner City 100, a Company Must:

Be an independent, for-profit corporation, partnership, or proprietorship. Be headquartered in or have 51% or more of its physical operations in economically distressed urban areas.* Have ten or more full-time employees in 2008. Have a five-year operating sales history (2004-2008) that includes:    an increase in 2008 sales over 2007 sales sales of at least $200,000 in 2004 and at least $1 million in 2008.     *Inner Cities are defined as urban areas within central cities with a population of at least 100,000 people that have higher poverty and unemployment rates and lower median household income levels than the surrounding Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA).

Do You Know Companies that Qualify? 

For more information or questions about the program or any part of the process please contact Alex Rodriguez at (617) 297-3140 or innercity100@icic.org. 

If you would like to download a PDF version of the Nomination Form, please click here.

DEADLINE FOR NOMINATIONS: SEPTEMBER 30, 2009.