Help Center

Main Menu

The main menu is at the top of every page. This menu includes:

• Community – The landing page provides an overview of the Empower Innovation community. The drop-down menu contains directories for organizations, startups (pre-filtered organizations), projects, and members (see Section 13 – Explore the Community for more information).
• Events – A public events calendar (see Section 14 – Find Events for more information).
• Funding – A single directory for funding and other development opportunities (see Section 15 – Find Funding Opportunities for more information).
• Resources – The landing page provides an overview of the resources collected on Empower Innovation. The drop down-menu contains pre-filtered directories for resource libraries, tools, and databases (see Section 17 – Find Resources for more information).
• About – The landing page provides an overview of Empower Innovation with explanatory videos. The drop-down menu introduces the major partners of the platform.

At the top of any page you may also Sign Up or Login to the platform. When you are logged in, a user menu will appear with your name in the top right corner (see Section 4 – User Menu). 

Once logged in, you may also select the icon that appears in the main menu to access your user dashboard (see Section 5 – User Dashboard).

Global Search

The global search tool is in the top right corner of every page, shown as a magnifying glass icon:

Enter your search terms and filter for a target directory or search the entire site, then hit the Enter key or click “Explore” to see your search results.

As you type search terms into the search bar, you may be prompted with matching search results in a drop-down selection. Clicking on one of these results will take you directly to that item’s profile. If you are not logged in, you may be prompted to sign up or log in before seeing restricted results, such as an individual member’s profile.

Language

The site structure is available in English (EN) and Spanish (ES), which may be changed by toggling between EN and ES in the upper right corner of any page, next to the global search icon. Most platform content (specific directory items, user-generated content, etc.) is currently available only in English.

Footer Menu

A footer menu is at the bottom of every page. This menu includes:

• Resources – Like the main menu, this section has links to pre-filtered directories for each type of resource.
• Featured – Quick links to directories for news and spotlights (see Section 2 – Homepage).
• Apply – If an Empower Innovation Partner has decided to offer an application for their program on the site, a link to the application will appear here (see Section 19 – Apply to Partner Programs).
• Contact Us – Quick links to:
  • About the Network – the About page
  • Message Our Team – the contact form 
  • User Guide 
  • Privacy Policy & Terms of Use

The homepage welcomes users to Empower Innovation with an interactive figure displaying the major user groups we believe will find value on the platform. Place your cursor over the “Find Your Path” prompt or over a user group to learn what the Empower Innovation Network can do. Click “Learn More” for any group to find more information on the Community landing page.

Below the interactive figure, the homepage has four main sections described below:

1. Opportunities
2. Featured (Events / Spotlights / News)
3. New Organizations
4. Partners 

Opportunities

This section of the homepage highlights six upcoming public and private funding and other development opportunities curated for Empower Innovation’s users. View an opportunity by selecting “Read More” or explore the entire Funding Directory by selecting “See All” (and by clicking here).

Featured

This section contains featured content in three categories:

• Events – Recently added events. View an event by selecting “Read More” or explore the calendar by selecting “See All.”
• Spotlights – Several featured interviews, blogs, and other content created and hosted on Empower Innovation. View a spotlight post by selecting “Read More” or explore the Spotlights Directory by selecting “See All.”
• News – Several featured news articles from the Empower Innovation curated news feed. View an article by selecting “Read More” or explore the News Directory by selecting “See All.”

If you have a story, press release, or event you would like to share on the site, please contact the Empower Innovation Management Team.

New Organizations

This section features the 10 organization profiles that were most recently created on the site. 

All new organizations will be shown in this section of the homepage at some point, so we recommend that the organization profile be as complete as possible, including a high-quality logo, before saving.

Partners

This section highlights the five California-based accelerators and funds and the California Energy Commission, who are currently Empower Innovation Partners. Hover over a logo or a map icon to show their locations and click on a logo to visit the Partner page. 

Signing up as a member of the Empower Innovation Network allows you to access several important features of the site (e.g., viewing member profiles, saving favorites, sending messages, and finding partners for funding opportunities). 

Click “Sign Up” in the top right corner of any page, which will open the member registration form. This form can be completed in either of two ways:

1. Select the LinkedIn icon and giving permission for Empower Innovation to retrieve your basic profile information and use your LinkedIn credentials.
2. Provide your first and last name, email address, and a new password.

Check the box if you would like to receive the Empower Innovation email newsletter (approximately monthly). Notification settings may be changed at any time in the “Manage Account” page of your user menu once your account is created (see Section 4 – User Menu for more information).

Finally, choose the role that best describes you and select your topics of interest. These topics will help generate personal content recommendations in your user dashboard (see Section 5 – User Dashboard).

Upon submitting the member registration form, you will land on your user dashboard page. You will also receive an email notification verifying your account.

When you are logged in, the user menu appears as your name in the top right corner of every page. Click on your name to access the dropdown menu, which includes: 

• Messages – Visit your message center (see Section 8 – Messaging).
• Lists – View lists you have created and that have been shared with you (see Section 18 – Create and Share Lists).
• My Applications – View your submitted or draft Empower Innovation Partner program applications (see Section 19 – Apply to a Partner Program).
• My Profile – View and edit your member profile (see Section 6 – Create Your Member Profile).
• Manage Account – See Section 7 – Manage Your Account.
• Membership Requests ­– If you own an organization profile (see Section 10 – Create or Join an Organization Profile) you will have access to a page where you may accept requests from other members to join your organization (see Section 11 – Manage an Organization Profile).

You can also log out of the platform from this menu. Please log out of your account if you are using a public computer to protect your information on the site.

Visit your user dashboard by selecting the  icon at the top of any page while logged in to Empower Innovation. Your dashboard reflects your preferences and personalized information on the platform.

The dashboard header shows your name, profile photo, organization logo, and a notification of any unread messages. A percentage on your profile photo indicates how complete your profile is. From here, you may edit your personal profile by clicking the yellow “edit” button (see Section 6 – Create Your Member Profile). If you are the owner of an organization profile (Section 10 – Create or Join an Organization Profile) you may also edit it from here by clicking the yellow “edit” button. 

Beneath the header section, you can explore three tabs with personalized information: 

• My Favorites – A selection of your favorite organizations, funding opportunities, resources, and news items on the platform (see Section 9 – Favorites). Select “See All Favorites” for your complete list. 
• Recommended – Recommended resources, organizations, and funding opportunities based on your interests, location, industry, and other information from your member profile. Keep your member profile up-to-date to receive the most valuable recommendations.
• Partner Requests – If you are seeking a partner on a funding opportunity and completed a partner request form, your submission will appear here (see Section 16 – Find A Partner). This is the most convenient place to return to the funding opportunity page and view other interested organizations. To make changes to your submitted Find a Partner form, select “Read More” and then “Actions” to edit.

Empower Innovation users will unlock the most value on the platform with a complete member profile. Your member profile informs the recommendations you receive on your dashboard, shares information about you with the rest of the community, and allows you to publicly connect with your organization, which lets you find a partner on funding opportunities (see Section 16 – Find A Partner). It also helps the EIN Management Team with anonymized data reporting.  

After registering, you will be directed to your user dashboard. Click “edit” next to your name. In addition to the information on the registration form, your member profile includes optional (but recommended) fields for:

• Profile Picture – Upload a headshot 
• Organization Name – Find your organization in the dropdown list or create a new organization profile (see Section 10 – Create or Join an Organization Profile)
• Location – Add the city where you work or live
• Personal Summary / Bio – Share information about yourself that you want other Empower Innovation members to know
• Skills – Choose from a list of professional skills
• Industry – Select your professional industry from the standard LinkedIn picklist
• “I work on cleantech projects, programs, or products related to…” – Choose from a wide range of cleantech topics to identify what you work on 
• “I would like to learn more about resources and organizations related to…” – Select the tags that will inform your customized content recommendations
• “I heard about Empower Innovation from…” – Help us collect data on outreach by letting the EIN Management Team know how you first heard about the platform
• Volunteering – Share your volunteer work with the community

Some additional information is requested only for specific “roles” – for example, a self-identified entrepreneur will be asked if they are associated with any of the Empower Innovation Partner accelerators and funds. 

Note that most of this information will be visible to other registered members in the Members Directory under the Community Menu. Certain data fields in the form may be marked “private” and will be visible only to platform administrators.

Your account settings can be accessed from your user menu (see Section 4 – User Menu). Select your name and then “Manage Account.” Here you will be able to manage settings for:

• Login and Security
  • Change login details including the email address associated with your account
  • Change your password
• Data – Request a copy of your data stored on the platform
• Notifications
  • Manage Platform Communications – You will automatically receive email notifications about a password reset, invitations to join an organization, requests to join an organization, and replies to submitting a Message the Team form. When this toggle in enabled, you will also receive email notifications about messages sent to you on the platform and lists shared with you. If you do not want to receive notifications for messages (see Section 8 – Messaging) or shared lists (see Section 18 – Create and Share Lists), turn this toggle off. 
  • Manage Email Subscription – Turning this toggle on allows the EIN Management Team to send you emails about Empower Innovation's features and content. Currently, this is an approximately monthly newsletter.
  • Manage Messaging – Default on. Turning this toggle off means you will no longer receive direct messages from other members, unless they are replying to a message from you. See Section 8 – Messaging. 

• Delete Account – Submit a request to the platform administrators to delete your account, along with a reason for cancelling your Empower Innovation membership.
• Contact Us – Message the platform administrators to report a technical problem, ask for help, share a suggestion, ask about personal data concerns, or to report inappropriate content or behavior on the site.

The Empower Innovation Network provides user-to-user and multi-user messaging. View and send messages from your inbox by selecting “Messages” in the user menu or by clicking on the “unread messages” number in your dashboard header.

Start a Conversation

To begin a new conversation with an Empower Innovation member, select the yellow New Message button in the upper right of your inbox. Begin typing in the name of any member in the “To” line and select the person you would like to message. To send a message to a group, you may select up to ten members this way.

Make a Referral

If your message is being used to introduce people to each other, please check “I’m making a referral” before sending your message. The EIN Management Team tracks referrals so we can learn how often members are facilitating connections on Empower Innovation. The recipient(s) of your message will not see the referral information and your message content will remain private.

Opt Out

If you do not want other members to be able to start a conversation with you, you can turn off introductory messages. Go to your Manage Account page (see Section 7 – Manage Your Account), “Notifications” tab, and turn off the “Manage Messaging” toggle. Other members will no longer be able to find your name in the “To” line of a new message or be able to access the “Send Message” button on your member profile. You will still be able to send messages and receive replies.

If you have opted out of messaging but own an organization profile, you will still receive messages sent via the “Send Message” button on the organization profile.  

To add new favorites, click the empty star icon on any entry in a directory:       You can do this from the main directory view (on the right side of the directory listing) or on the entry’s profile page (at the top). An entry that has been successfully favorited will show a yellow star: 

To remove entries from your favorites, unselect the yellow star icon.

All Empower Innovation members are encouraged to create or join an organization profile. Each organization on the platform should have a single organization profile found in the Organizations Directory, with at least one member associated with it. Associated members are shown on the left side of the organization profile with a link to their personal profiles. 

Individual members can have one of three roles on the organization profile:

• Owner – The member who created the organization profile; the owner can also invite and accept/reject other members, assign roles, and edit/delete the profile.
• Admin – An admin can manage membership and edit (but not delete) the profile. 
• Member – A standard member is shown on the organization profile, but does not have permission to edit the profile or membership of others.

An organization profile is the best way to showcase your technology products, services, organizational expertise, and accomplishments, as well as your interests and needs on the platform (e.g., you may indicate if your company is seeking a particular cleantech solution). 

Create a New Organization

An organization profile must be created from the Organizations Directory:

• Select “Organizations” under the Community Menu
• Hover over  in the bottom right of the screen
• Click  to add a new organization
• Fill out the organization form (you may save a draft for future editing)
• Select “Save” to publish the organization profile to the public directory

When filling out the organization form, we ask that you select a primary and secondary organization “type” from seven options:

1. Technology Innovators
2. Local Communities
3. Funding Providers
4. Architecture & Engineering
5. Technology Adopters
6. Startup Services
7. Other

The Community landing page provides more guidance about these organization types. Please send the EIN Management Team a message from the Message the Team form in the footer of any page if you have any further questions.

Some additional information is requested for specific organization types – for example, a Local Community organization will answer questions about their community’s concerns and needs. There are also some private data fields; for example, a startup company identifying as a Technology Innovator will be asked about funds raised in a private field for anonymized data reporting by the platform administrators.

Join an Existing Organization

Before creating a new organization profile, use the global search bar or search the Organizations Directory to make sure a colleague has not already created one. If your organization is already on the platform, visit the profile page and click the “Join Organization” button in the upper right. 

This triggers a request to the organization’s owner, who can accept or deny the request.

If you create an organization profile or are given ownership of an existing organization profile by a platform administrator, you have been placed in the “owner” role with additional permissions for managing the profile.

From the “Actions” menu in the upper right of your organization profile you can:

• Invite members who are affiliated with your organization to be publicly associated with your organization profile (“Invite Members”).
• Make a standard member an admin (with profile editing and membership management permissions) or vice versa (“Assign Roles”).
• Edit the information on the organization profile (“Edit”).
• Add projects associated with the organization (“Add Project”). See Section 11 – Add Projects to an Organization.
• Delete the profile (“Delete”).

You can also accept or deny requests from members who would like to be publicly associated with your organization profile either via email notification or from the user menu “Membership Requests” (see Section 4 – User Menu).

If the organization owner is no longer with the company or otherwise needs to transfer their responsibilities, please contact a platform administrator from the Message Our Team link in the footer of any page. 

All associated members – the organization owner, admin, and a standard member – can submit a Find A Partner request for their organization (see Section 16 – Find A Partner).

A “Project” is a current or completed cleantech pilot project, technology demonstration, research study, or other accomplishment you want to showcase to the Empower Innovation community. A “Place” is any location or site seeking cleantech solutions, partners, or funding from the Empower Innovation community. A place describes your needs and your concept for a future or proposed project. 

All projects and places are included in the Projects and Places Directory under the Community Menu, and your projects and places are also featured on your organization profile. 

Projects may include:

• Technology pilot projects
• Technology lab or field demonstrations
• Commercial technology deployments
• Training programs
• Nonprofit initiatives
• Research efforts / long-term studies

Places may include:

• A building, facility, or campus seeking a technology pilot project or demonstration
• A company seeking a commercial technology deployment
• A city or town seeking to address a climate, energy, or environmental need
• A community organization or nonprofit highlighting a neighborhood or community facing climate, energy, or environmental concerns

There are two ways for organization profile owners to add a new project or place:

1. Visit your organization profile either through the Organizations Directory or your user dashboard.
   • Click the “Actions” menu button.
   • Select “Add Project” from the dropdown menu.
   • Select "Project" or "Place" on the form and fill out the remaining information (you may save it as a draft for future editing).
   • Click “Save” to publish the project or place to your organization profile and the directory.

    2. Visit the Projects and Places Directory 

• Hover over  in the bottom right of the screen.
• Select  to add a new project or place.
• Select "Project" or "Place" on the form and fill out the remaining information (you may save it as a draft for future editing).
• Click “Save” to publish the project or place to your organization profile and the directory.

Click “Community” in the main menu to reach the landing page, which provides an overview of the Empower Innovation community. From there, you can open a new tab to the Organization Directory by selecting “Explore the Community.” Alternatively, hover over Community in the main menu to show the dropdown list and select a directory. There are four Community directories:

• Organizations – The entire organization directory with all organization types.
• Startups – A pre-filtered directory with all startup (“Technology Innovator” type) organizations.
• Projects and Places – A directory of all projects and places created by organizations (see Section 12 – Add Projects or Places to an Organization).
• Members – A directory with all member profiles. Access to this directory is restricted to registered members (see Section 3 – Sign Up to become a member).

Each directory can be filtered and searched using keywords. As you type search terms into the directory search bar, you may be prompted with matching search results in a drop-down selection. Clicking on one of these results will take you directly to that entry’s profile. If you are not logged in, you may be prompted to sign up or log in before seeing restricted results, such as a member’s profile. The filters are located on the left side of the page.

Directory items can be favorited by selecting the star icon in the directory view or on the item’s profile (see Section 9 – Favorites).

In the directory view, to expand the listing for a particular entry you can select the small arrow icon. Click on the entry’s name to go to its profile page. 

Click on “Funding” in the main menu to go to the Funding Directory. This is a searchable directory of cleantech-related public and private funding opportunities curated by the EIN Management Team and the Empower Innovation Partners. 

Funding opportunities are displayed in a list format similar to the Community directories. Use the filters on the left side of the page and the search bar to find specific opportunities of interest. To view a specific funding opportunity, click the title of the entry in the directory view.

In the directory listing, relevant information is presented for each funding opportunity to make browsing easier. This includes the opportunity title, name of the organization providing the opportunity, funding type (e.g., Public Grant, Accelerator/Fellowship Program, etc.), status, and application deadline. 

Funding opportunity statuses used on the platform include:

• Active – Currently accepting applications.
• Inactive – Not currently accepting applications (typically, this means the deadline has passed. We keep some of these opportunities in the directory because they may re-open or have another round of applications in the future).
• Pending – Announced but not yet accepting applications.
• Rolling – Accepts applications on a regular schedule (monthly, quarterly, biannual, etc.).

The directory is default sorted by upcoming application deadlines for active opportunities to provide the most relevant opportunities up front. Other sorting options include:

• Alphabetically by funding opportunity title
• Most Recent for recently added opportunities
• Relevance to find the best matches for your search criteria in the directory search bar

The Funding Directory can be searched using keywords. As you type search terms into the directory search bar, you may be prompted with matching search results in a drop-down selection. Clicking on one of these results will take you directly to that entry’s profile.

You can filter the directory by status so that the “inactive” opportunities do not appear in your searches. The EIN Management Team strives to keep opportunities up to date, but we recommend checking the independent website for the funding opportunity for the latest information on deadlines and other requirements.

If you are an owner, admin, or member of an organization with a profile on the platform (see Section 10 – Create or Join an Organization Profile), you can use the “Find A Partner” feature.  

This feature allows your organization to signal interest in partnering on a funding opportunity by completing a simple informational form. Organizations that have submitted partner forms for the same funding opportunity will be able to see each other on the funding opportunity page, review the information offered, and send a message if interested. Only one form may be submitted by an organization for each opportunity.   

To submit a partner form: 

• Find a funding opportunity your organization is interested in partnering on (see Section 15 – Find Funding Opportunities). 

• Select the “Find a Partner” button at the top of the funding opportunity’s profile. This will open the form. 

• Enter your name and select your organization from the dropdown list. 

• Indicate your interest level by selecting either:  

• “My organization is interested in this funding opportunity” – Indicates interest in discussing the opportunity generally, but not ready to share additional details publicly. 

• “My organization is seeking a partner for this funding opportunity” – Indicates you are ready to find a partner. If you select this option, please fill out the next section of the form which identifies what your organization is offering for the opportunity, facilitating faster connections with potential partners. 

• Select “Save.” 

Upon completing the form, you and your organization will be listed at the bottom of the funding opportunity’s profile where potential partners can find you. There, you can also see other interested organizations. Click on any entry in this section to see additional information and send a message directly. 

Click “Resources” in the main menu to reach the landing page, which provides an overview of the publicly-available resources curated for the cleantech community on Empower Innovation. From the landing page, you can click on a directory view to visit. Alternatively, you can hover over the main menu to show the dropdown list and select a directory view from there. There are three pre-filtered Resource Directory views:

• Resource Libraries: Collections of articles, market research, videos, and other content created or curated around a theme. This also includes standalone reports that contain valuable insights from industry experts. 
• Tools: Guides, kits, and templates to help you build your ideas and business while identifying gaps in your knowledge.
• Databases: External data on startups, investors, and other members of the cleantech community. Several outside databases include paid subscriptions with extra features.

The directory can be filtered and searched using keywords. As you type search terms into the directory search bar, you may be prompted with matching search results in a drop-down selection. Clicking on one of these results will take you directly to that entry’s profile. 

The filters are located on the left side of the page. By removing all “category” filters, you can see all resource types in one directory view. All resources can also be filtered by “Tags” which are consistent across organization and funding opportunity directories. 

Click on “Events” in the main menu to go to the Empower Innovation Events Calendar. This is a public calendar with workshops, conferences, competitions, and other networking opportunities in California and beyond. Events are automatically displayed in a calendar view, and can also be shown in a grid. Toggle the view with the buttons to the upper right of the page.

Explore events by using the filters on the left side of the page and the search bar at the top of the directory. When in the grid view, events are default sorted by upcoming date. Events can also be sorted alphabetically and by relevance to search terms entered in the search bar, which will also include past events.

Lists let you save and share items from all directories in a single page, including funding, events, resources, members, and organizations. Lists are a collaborative tool that can be shared and edited by multiple people. 

Create a List

Members have two ways to make a new list: 

My Lists:

• Open your user menu in the upper right corner of any page and select “Lists.” 

• Click the yellow button for “New List.”  

• Add a name and description. 

• Select which directory you would like to add items from – this will open the directory view and a pop-up prompt will confirm that you are adding entries to a list. 

• Select  at the top right corner of any directory item (if you are in the events directory, switch to grid view). 

• Each item you select will appear in a temporary banner at the bottom of the page. 

• Click “Next” in the pop-up prompt to finish – this will take you to the completed list. 

From any directory: 

• While browsing a directory, select  at the top right corner of any directory item (if you are in the events directory, switch to grid view). 

• Each item you select will appear in a temporary banner at the bottom of the page. 

• Hover over the  in the lower right corner of the page. 

• Hover over the  icon. 

• Enter the name of a new list and select the plus button next to your new list name. 

• A prompt at the top of the page will acknowledge that items were successfully added to the list – your new list has been created, but you will remain in the directory view.  

• Clear your selected results under the  menu to keep browsing or adding more items. 

View and Edit a List 

To view the lists you’ve created or that have been shared with you, open your user menu in the upper right corner of any page and select “Lists” to open your personal directory. Click on a list’s name to view the list directly, or select the  menu to view, edit, or delete the list.  

Remove Items:

• View the individual list page.   

• De-select the  icon. 

• Hover over the   in the lower right corner of the page. 

• Remove the selected item(s) by clicking the eraser icon.  

Add Items:

From “My Lists,” select the  menu and click “edit.” This will bring up the list creation form. Select a directory to add additional items.  

Members can also add items to an existing list from the directory view: 

• While browsing a directory, select  at the top right corner of any directory item. 

• Hover over the  in the lower right corner of the page. 

• Hover over the  icon. 

• Click the name of an existing list. 

• A prompt at the top of the page will acknowledge that items were successfully added to the list, but you will remain in the directory view.  

• Clear your selected results under the  menu to keep browsing or adding more items. 

Share a List

• Select the  menu and click “share.”  

• Type in the name of the member(s) you would like to share the list with. 

• Select the checkbox if you would like to give them permission to edit the list. (Note that only the list creator can delete the list, even if other users have permission to edit.) 

• Add a message (optional). 

• Click “share” to finish. 

The Empower Innovation Partners may choose to host applications for their program on the platform. To see which applications are available, check the footer menu under “Apply” or visit a partner page under “About” in the main menu.

If the footer menu link takes you to the partner’s page, the application may be submitted on the platform. If it takes you to a funding opportunity page in the Funding Directory, there will instead be an external link to the application. From a partner’s page, look for a “Submit Your Application Now” button. If you do not see it, the program either does not host their application on the platform or the application period is closed. More information may be available by clicking the link to the partner’s independent website. 

To apply:

• Click the “Submit Your Application Now” button. 
• Review the general information or application instructions at the top of the application. 
• Fill out the required fields.
• Upload additional documents, as requested. 
• Click “submit” at the bottom of the form.
• You may also save a draft of your application and return to it before submitting.
• You will receive an email confirming your application’s submission. The program you applied to will contact you through the platform or other approved methods according to their application cycle and review process.

The EIN Management Team may be contacted through the Contact Form, accessible two ways:

• Select “Message the Team” from the “Contact Us” section in the footer menu.
• Select “Manage Account” from your user menu, then “Contact Us.”

In the form, please select a subject that describes your inquiry or concern. If you do not see a topic that fits, please select the closest topic and add more information in your message.