New Profit Will Invest $1 Million in Learning Innovation Catalyst 4.0
4.0 coaches and funds grass-root entrepreneurs that aim to build a more equitable education system
January 21, 2021New Profit, a national venture philanthropy organization, announced that it will support 4.0 with $1 million in unrestricted funding and additional strategic support to help CEO Hassan Hassan and his team expand the organization’s impact.
4.0 believes that all people are capable of sparking real change in their communities if they have access to resources to develop and test their ideas at the earliest stages. 4.0 aims to shift both the distribution of resources and innovation in the education system closer to the communities the system is currently failing to serve. In its fully realized vision, 4.0 imagines that founders of education R&D reflect the diversity of our nation; families and youth are co-owners in the process of vetting promising education ideas from inception to piloting; and funding is abundant, transparent, and democratized in the early stages of development.
The 4.0 team has built an engine of innovation that democratizes access to a combination of coaching, community, curriculum and capital. 4.0 attracts underrepresented talent and supports them in becoming leaders and innovators by exercising their innate power to identify and scale great educational opportunities that serve their needs.
4.0 helps these innovators incubate proof points as pilot programs. For a subset of these pilots, 4.0 then helps their leaders further scale their innovations. The organization has also built an alumni network to help all of its fellows continue to build their leadership and innovation skills in the long-term. 4.0 is also piloting the inaugural cohort of its “Angel Syndicate,” a six-month program and giving circle for Black leaders looking to build skills, relationships, identities, and collective power as education philanthropists. 4.0’s ambition is to organize 4,000 members in four years to pool funds and co-invest in early-stage education ventures.
With a focus on diverse and underrepresented leadership as well as community-based entrepreneurs, 4.0 is challenging the status-quo of how education change happens, who should lead it, and how funders can support entrepreneurs.
4.0 exists to affirm the visions that youth, parents, and educators have for themselves and their communities. Over the last 10 years, 4.0 has grown into a diverse network of more than 1,200 innovators across 45 states. We are honored to partner with New Profit as we pursue our vision for the next 10 years: organizing into a self-sufficient ecosystem of families, founders, and funders who share resources and power equitably
Over the next four years, in addition to the unrestricted grant, New Profit will partner with 4.0 on leadership and board development, and strategic planning for growth and impact, among other areas.
To learn more about 4.0, please visit https://www.4pt0.org/