Note: This application period has closed. 

New Profit is committed to being responsive to the needs of proximate social entrepreneurs and partners. In response to specific feedback we have received, our team has elected to update and clarify the eligibility criteria for applicants to the Economic Mobility Cohort.

Our updated criteria are as follows:

• Entrepreneurs must be full-time (at least 30 Hours/ Week) as of March 1, 2022.
• Organizations must have at least 12 months of programming in the community complete by March 1, 2022.
• Organization must have an operating budget no higher than $2.5M.
• The prioritized geographies are as follows with further clarification:
  • Birmingham, Alabama
  • Chicago, Illinois
  • Dallas, Texas
  • Detroit, Michigan
  • Los Angeles, California
  • New York, New York
  • San Bernardino, California
  • San Francisco, California – INCLUDING the larger Bay Area

If you are interested in joining the Economic Mobility Cohort, please fill out an application here by 5pm ET on November 16. Selected organizations will receive a $100K unrestricted Catalyze Investment grant along with New Profit cohort-based capacity-building support and participation in a peer learning community over the course of one year.

Please reach out to catalyze@newprofit.org with any questions.

NOTE: If you have already applied – thank you! Your application will be read as submitted, and there is no need to re-submit. However, if you would like to update any part of your application, you are welcome to do so by submitting a new application here. 

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Call for Submissions: New Profit to Make $800,000 Investment in Eight Organizations Working Towards Wealth Creation for Women of Color

Applications close on Tuesday, November 16 at 5:00pm ET.

An informational webinar was held on Friday, October 8th, 2021. A recording of the webinar and associated slides can be found in the “Resources” section below. 

New Profit’s Catalyze Investments team is bringing together leading social entrepreneurs to build breakthrough solutions in economic mobility in America. Through the inaugural Economic Mobility Cohort, New Profit will provide capacity-building support over the course of 12 months, with programming to kick off in early March of 2022. We will invest in direct service organizations that work across three separate but interrelated levers to create wealth for women of color in America:

1. 1. Income Generation – Pathways to gainful employment
      (Examples include innovations in the education to employment system.)
   2. Social Determinants of Work – Enabling conditions that play an essential role in employment outcomes
      (Examples include childcare, transportation, and affordable housing.)
   3. Financial Health – Asset-building for wealth creation
      (Examples include access to capital for home ownership or entrepreneurship and financial health and coaching.)

About New Profit’s Catalyze Investments

New Profit’s Catalyze Investments team offers a synergistic support model to innovative early-stage organizations, creating value across several dimensions. This includes a peer learning community in each cohort, 1:1 adaptive leadership coaching, consultations with external content experts, New Profit’s tested capacity-building framework and tools, and $100,000 in unrestricted capital and capacity-building support over one to three years. 

Our team works to catalyze the innovations of organizations led by leaders from marginalized, underrepresented communities through various cohorts including: Civic Lab (democracy entrepreneurs), Postsecondary Innovation for Equity (postsecondary innovators), Unlocked Futures (entrepreneurs impacted by the criminal justice system), and now Economic Mobility.

While each cohort has different needs, the base of our capacity-building program consists of: 

• • Refining theory of change and connecting it to a compelling story of impact
  • Assessing organizational strengths, capabilities, and areas for improvement
  • Building effective boards of directors
  • Developing effective practices for managing teams/ stakeholders 
  • Identifying effective practices for operational excellence in order to execute against organizational strategy (fundraising, finance, HR, and communications) 
  • 1-2 additional topics identified by cohort members as areas of need

We are seeking the most innovative social entrepreneur-led organizations in our country. For this investment cycle, we are prioritizing investing in organizations led by women of color, with an emphasis on Black, Latina/o/x, and Indigenous leaders.

About the Economic Mobility Cohort

With support from the Community Focus Fund at the San Francisco Foundation, eight innovative nonprofit organizations will each receive a one-year $100,000 investment grant of unrestricted resources. Each organization will also receive New Profit cohort-based capacity-building support and participate in a peer learning community over the course of twelve months, beginning in early March of 2022.  

Our investments are guided by five principles: 

1. 1. We are committed to finding and investing in underrepresented—often isolated— social entrepreneurs who operate in a resource desert, yet have grounded insight into some type of systemic inequity and the solutions needed to transform it.
   2. We are committed to identifying and building the ability to support breakthrough solutions that defy current social change models and demonstrate potential to create transformational results.
   3. We are relentless about impact and we will support leaders who have demonstrated the potential to create transformative results
   4. We seek to partner with leaders who are committed to working collaboratively with members of the New Profit community.
   5. We aim to amplify organizations whose teams have proximity to the impacted community and who elevate working-learner voice through their research, testing, and continuous collaboration with impacted workers. 

To address the complexity of what is required to build wealth for women of color—and create true economic mobility across generations in the United States—we will invest in organizations that work across three different levers:  1) income generation 2) social determinants of work and 3) wealth generation. 

Eligibility

Organizations applying to the Economic Mobility Cohort must fit the following criteria to apply. If your organization does not meet the eligibility criteria at this time, you may sign up here to be notified of future funding opportunities at New Profit.

We define a Social Entrepreneur (often the CEO or equivalent title) as both the leader and final decision maker of an organization’s internal/external strategy, daily operations, and financial decisions—outside of your board, the buck stops with you.

• Organization or fiscal sponsor must be a 501(c)(3)
• Organization’s work must be focused on income generation, social determinants of work, and/or financial health
• Organizations must have at least 12 months of programming in the community complete by March 1, 2022 (updated)
• Organization must have an annual operating budget of less than $2.5M (updated)
• Organization must operate in at least one of the following geographies, with a preference for organizations who are also headquartered in one of the following geographies:
  • Birmingham, Alabama
  • Chicago, Illinois
  • Dallas, Texas
  • Detroit, Michigan
  • Los Angeles, California
  • New York, New York
  • San Bernardino, California
  • San Francisco, California INCLUDING the larger Bay Area (updated)
• Entrepreneurs must be full-time (at least 30 hours/week) AS OF March 1, 2022. (updated)
• Social entrepreneur plans to stay at the organization for the duration of cohort programming
• Social entrepreneurs must commit to engaging in 1) monthly 1:1 coaching, 2) three multi-day in-person/virtual convenings, and 3) four 2-3-hour virtual learning sessions over the course of twelve months. If or when it is safe to resume in-person gatherings, convenings will be held in Boston, MA.

Resources

Note: This application period has closed. 

 The deadline to submit your applications was Tuesday, November 16 2021 at 5:00 pm ET. 

An information session was held on Friday, October 8. If you were unable to attend the information session you can view the recording and associated slides below. 

• • Application Guide
  • Application Template
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Information Session Recording 
  • Information Session Slides

For any questions, please contact catalyze@newprofit.org. We have multiple investment selection cycles this fall, so to ensure a timely response, please state “Question about the Economic Mobility Cohort” in the subject line of your email. 

About New Profit

New Profit is a venture philanthropy organization that backs social entrepreneurs who are advancing equity and opportunity in America. New Profit exists to build a bridge between these leaders and a community of philanthropists who are committed to catalyzing their impact. New Profit provides unrestricted grants and strategic support to a portfolio of organizations led by visionary social entrepreneurs to increase their impact, scale, and sustainability. It also partners with social entrepreneurs and other cross-sector leaders to shift how government and philanthropy pursue social change to ensure that all people can thrive. Since its founding in 1998, New Profit has invested over $350M in 130+ organizations and, through the America Forward Coalition’s collective advocacy efforts, has unlocked over $1.7B in government funding for social innovation.