(Note: The application period for this cohort is now closed)

Launched in 2019, New Profit’s Civic Lab is a leading nonpartisan initiative that invests in and grows innovative non-profit organizations focused on building civic trust and an inclusive democracy in in the United States and its territories. To date, Civic Lab has invested in 22 game-changing organizations. 

In 2023, we will invest in eight innovative nonpartisan organizations. Due to the significant funding disparity for organizations led by leaders of color, particularly women of color, our investments will be prioritizing organizations led by Black, Latino/a/x, and Indigenous women, Nonbinary, and Trans leaders and organizations working in rural communities. If you don’t identify along these lines but your organization is eligible based on these criteria, we encourage you to apply. Read more about some of our lessons learned from our 2021 investment cycle in our State of Democracy Entrepreneurship. 

You can learn more about our eligibility criteria here. If your organization does not meet the eligibility criteria at this time, we invite you to complete New Profit’s Discovery Form, which will help us consider you for future relevant funding opportunities.

Civic Lab Overview

Our Civic Lab investments are guided by four principles: 

1. We believe democracy entrepreneurs who represent the diversity of our country should be at the helm of leading efforts to transform the civic destiny of our country.
2. We invest in the long game. 
3. We need to unlock the latent power of everyday Americans to create enduring local leadership that will drive and sustain civic participation. We need breakthrough solutions that target the underlying structural and systemic conditions creating disenfranchisement in our democracy.
4. We are committed to diversity of demographics, thought, and geography to unleash the full ingenuity and innovation needed to move our country forward.

If you have any questions about this upcoming investment cycle in advance of the application launch, we encourage you to contact our team at catalyze@newprofit.org with “Civic Lab” in the subject line. You can also register here for an informational session on the opportunity led by the Civic Lab team on Wednesday, August 16 at 1:00pm ET/10am PT.

Catalyze Support Model

New Profit offers a collaborative support model to support visionary social entrepreneurs and their organizations, creating value across several dimensions. Our support model includes participation in a peer learning community, 1:1 adaptive leadership coaching, connection to consultations with external content experts, New Profit’s tested capacity-building framework and tools, and $100,000 in unrestricted support.

While each cohort of social entrepreneurs requires tailored supports to meet their unique needs, the base of our capacity-building program includes the following: 

• Refining impact model to advance systems change outcomes and connecting it to a compelling story of impact
• Assessing organizational strengths, capabilities, and opportunities for growth
• Building an effective, high-performance boards of directors
• Developing equitable and results-driven practices for managing teams and 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 support

Please note that our capacity-building program is currently designed to address specific questions and challenges faced by 501(c)(3) organizations. As a result, we are not able to invite for-profit enterprises to join the portfolio at this time.