04Portfolio Spotlight

05Ecosystem Building

06Field Leadership

07Leadership & Donors

08Strategic Collaborations

09Financials

2021 Annual Report

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2021 Annual Report

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Letter from the Co-CEOs

Tulaine Montgomery and Vanessa Kirsch

As we write this letter, we are heartened by social entrepreneurs across the country. Although they have faced immense difficulties over the past year and a half, they have managed to provide critical, innovative, and inspired support to their communities and our nation. These visionary leaders, particularly those who are guided by the insights and experiences of the communities they aim to serve, are the best hope for an America that lives up to its potential. Supporting them remains New Profit’s passion and purpose.

Timeline of Activities

Explore a few key moments from this past year

Jan 2021

Feb 2021

Mar 2021

Mar /Apr 2021

May 2021

Jun 2021

Aug 2021

Sep 2021

Oct 2021

Dec 2021

Civic Lab invests in seven game-changing democracy organizations

Selected from a pool of 117 applicants, the organizations that joined the second cohort of New Profit’s Civic Lab are strengthening American democracy and civic culture. More than 70% of Civic Lab’s current portfolio organizations are led by people of color.

Completion of the second Unlocked Futures Cohort

New Profit’s Unlocked Futures supports social entrepreneurs directly impacted by the American legal system. Over the course of the program, these leaders demonstrated their continued commitment to meeting the needs of their communities while working to transform the legal system.

New Profit & Blue Meridian Partners host “Building an Equitable Capital Market for Leaders of Color” Discussion

In an intimate and provocative conversation with social entrepreneurs, investors, and philanthropic leaders, New Profit and Blue Meridian Partners explored what it will take to build a more equitable capital market for leaders of color.

Future of Work Grand Challenge announces finalists

Selected from more than 1,200 applicants, 15 innovators addressing a wide range of systemic barriers to learning, progress, and socioeconomic mobility were announced as finalists during a live virtual event that included MSNBC’s Ali Velshi and U.S. Representative Rosa DeLauro.

New Profit hosts the Rural and Small Town Action Summit

Over three afternoons, New Profit hosted a virtual, high-participation Action Summit focused on the rural and small town philanthropic gap—what it is, why it exists, and why it matters. The Action Summit challenged assumptions about U.S. rural communities and small towns, and about the value and viability of large philanthropic investments in these places.

Vanessa Kirsch and Tulaine Montgomery named Co-CEOs of New Profit

New Profit evolved its leadership at a moment of immense challenges and opportunities for philanthropy and the country. Together, Tulaine and Vanessa will lead the organization forward with a strong focus on building a community of proximate social entrepreneurs and committed philanthropists who can drive progress toward transforming America’s most inequitable systems.

New Profit presents at the Giving Pledge annual gathering

New Profit was invited to join the Giving Pledge’s annual gathering, a closed event that brings together Giving Pledgers and a handful of select organizations. Tulaine and Vanessa shared New Profit’s story, its unique model, and a video with examples of the power of proximate leaders.

New Profit receives breakthrough funding from MacKenzie Scott and Dan Jewett

The unrestricted gift makes it possible for New Profit to continue to expand its support for social entrepreneurs and other leaders who have lived experience with the systems in our country that need to change. The gift also acknowledges New Profit’s commitment to investing in the genius of proximate problem-solvers.

New Profit makes two Wellbeing in Education investments

The Wellbeing in Education initiative was launched during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic to invest in organizations that actively advance the wellbeing of their constituents as a primary element of their model, including through social-emotional learning, mental health supports, and ongoing wellbeing supports for young people, educators, and families.

Civic Lab publishes The State of Democracy Entrepreneurship report

The report, which draws on data from 117 applications to New Profit’s Civic Lab II, highlights the unique set of challenges faced by democracy entrepreneurs and the role philanthropy can play in removing barriers for proximate leaders, particularly women of color.

Tulaine Montgomery honored with ASU+GSV’s Innovator of Color award

The preeminent global education innovation summit connects leading minds focused on transforming society and business around learning and work so all people have equal access to the future. This year, Tulaine was selected as one of two Innovators of Color honored at the national event.

New Profit launches Equitable Education Recovery Initiative (EERI)

The COVID-19 pandemic magnified the inequities of our education system. The EERI aims to provide unrestricted funding to 24 organizations offering Math/ELA tutoring, whole child supports, and/or postsecondary advising.

Tulaine Montgomery and Dr. Angela Jackson at SSIR’s Nonprofit Management Institute

During the lead session of Stanford Social Innovation Review’s annual gathering of nonprofit leaders, Tulaine and Angela led a discussion examining how philanthropic leaders and funders are breaking away from the dominant culture and strategies of philanthropy to advance the work and insights of proximate leaders and innovators.

Selection for Postsecondary Innovation for Equity II (PIE) Cohort launched

In 2019, New Profit launched the first open application period for the PIE initiative, a multi-year effort to identify and support social entrepreneurs working to increase economic mobility. The demand was higher than expected with 316 eligible applicants. This year, we launched the search for the second PIE cohort, which will fuel the further success of proximate leaders in the education-to-employment sector.

Economic Mobility Cohort application launches

Through the inaugural Economic Mobility Cohort, New Profit kicked off an effort to invest in and support eight direct service organizations working across three separate but interrelated sectors to create wealth for women of color in America: income generation, social determinants of work, and financial health.

Health Equity Cohort application launches

The disproportionate impact of the pandemic on communities of color and low-income communities has brought inequity—and social and racial justice—to the forefront of public health. In partnership with the Deloitte Health Equity Institute, New Profit launched its first Health Equity Cohort to support a range of social entrepreneurs focusing on root causes of health inequity.

New Profit announces investment in Think of Us

New Profit announced that it will provide $1 million in unrestricted funding along with capacity-building support over a four-year term to Think of Us, a nonprofit organization advancing systems change for foster care. The investment, part of New Profit’s flagship Proximate Capital Fund, aims to help Think of Us shift the child welfare system from its current focus on compliance and risk mitigation to instead enable holistic development and wellbeing for current and former foster youth.

Portfolio Investing

In early 2020, New Profit revisited our portfolio strategy to bolster our support model in ways that center our values of equity and proximity, and evolve with the needs of our grantee partners. Over the course of the year, we reexamined our guiding “Impact Compass,” which directs our vision for what our grantee partners and portfolio can achieve over time. In 2021, building on the Impact Compass, we have been working to revise and update our support offerings and to design and execute our new portfolio strategy.

We are also planning for significant portfolio growth over the next three years. We are committed to investing in organizations that are tackling a broad set of challenges, and in the largest group of Black, Latine/x, and Indigenous leaders in our portfolio history—more than 50 percent of our current portfolio organizations are led by people of color.

We are also investing in diverse organizational models—organizations focused on direct growth, those who focus on building knowledge and providing technical assistance, and those focused on holistic systems change. As we seek to support our grantee partners, we aim to offer the best of our lessons learned from our 23-year history, coupled with our learnings on centering equity and proximity and pursuing systems change. We are committed to learning from and with social entrepreneurs in our portfolio, and continually evolving and updating our thinking and our supports.

Build Investments

Catalyze Investments

Build Investments

Build Investments are $1M+ multi-year, unrestricted grants that come with deep strategic support and a dedicated New Profit “Deal Partner” who serves as a trusted advisor to the social entrepreneur and as a member of the organization’s board of directors.

Portfolio Highlights

We invested in three new Build organizations:

Kingmakers of Oakland and Envision Education, two organizations working to improve student wellbeing and identity development, were selected as part of our Wellbeing in Education initiative. We also invested in Think of Us, an organization founded and led by former foster youth that is transforming the child welfare system to center lived experience.

We saw nine exceptional organizations exit our portfolio:

As the Personalized Learning Initiative came to a close after four years, Aurora Institute, Highlander Institute, ImBlaze (an initiative of Big Picture Learning), The Learning Accelerator, PowerMyLearning, Transcend Education, and Valor Collegiate Academies exited. In addition, EdLoC and EnLearn also completed their terms with New Profit in 2021.

We launched a second Postsecondary Innovation for Equity (PIE) cohort:

In 2020, we launched the inaugural PIE cohort by investing in 20 social entrepreneurs who are connecting young adults from systemically overlooked communities with postsecondary credentials and work experience to accelerate their careers. In late 2021, New Profit launched the process to select a cohort of Build investments to fuel the further success of proximate entrepreneurs in the education-to-employment space.

Portfolio Stats

Scale & Lives Touched

17.6M

Lives touched

47 states

were served by New Profit's Build portfolio

12%

median 3-year CAGR

56%

of Build investments reported an annual growth rate in beneficiaries

Financial Growth & Sustainability

14%

average growth rate of organizations’ budget

8%

median 3-year expenses CAGR

42%

of organizations reported annual expense growth rate of over 20% between their pre-pandemic expenses at the end of 2019 and 2021

Build Investments

Hassan Hassan

4.0 Schools

Susan Patrick

Aurora Institute

Alexandra Bernadotte

Beyond 12

Aimée Eubanks Davis

Braven

Karen Niemi

CASEL

Sharhonda Bossier

Education Leaders of Color (EdLoC)

Scott Adam

Enlearn

Gia Truong

Envision Education

Eddie Lincoln

Equal Opportunity Schools

New Profit’s Satisfaction Survey

Each year, New Profit surveys the social entrepreneurs in our portfolio to assess their satisfaction with our supports and determine how we can serve them and their organizations more effectively. In our 2021 survey of the Build investments portfolio, 98% of Deal Partner supports were rated as “effective or completely effective” across a range of areas including strategic advising, board development, and leadership coaching. Social entrepreneurs also consistently mentioned that the relationship with their Deal Partner was the most valued aspect of New Profit’s support structure.

“[Our Deal Partner’s] investment and engagement as a board member has been critical to our organization’s stability over the past year.”

“New Profit feels like a good example of what it means to have a funding partnership, whereas with other funders it feels you must spend a lot of time convincing and re-convincing them of your value and impact in the hopes of getting/retaining funding.”

“The board support, direct communication, and problem solving with the Deal Partner has been hugely beneﬁcial.”

“It has been encouraging to see New Proﬁt staff address police violence, racism, and other forms of racial and social oppression directly this past year.”

Catalyze Investments

Catalyze Investments are $100K-$200K unrestricted grants that come with capacity-building support and a peer learning community over one to three years to accelerate the innovations of organizations with leaders and focus areas that have been historically underinvested by philanthropy.