Deadline: 30-Jul-21
The Sorenson Impact Foundation launched the Equitable & Resilient Recovery grant program to help provide access to capital, entrepreneur support, and jobs for underserved communities across the US in the heart of a global pandemic and concurrent economic, labor and health crisis.
- SIF is seeking proposals for projects addressing the following areas:
- Innovations in Community Investing for Underserved Areas: The financial system is perhaps one of the largest and most critical systems in the US but has not worked for everyone. Many communities lack basic banking services. They are seeking innovative proposals for initiatives to strengthen community investing in underserved communities. The goal for this focus area is to answer the question “How do they get functioning financial services to a broader range of communities in order to support their economic growth potential?”
- Example Proposal Topics:
- Projects designed to fortify Community Develop Financial Institutions (CDFIs) and ensure they have the capital and capacity needed to support the communities they serve; educating philanthropists on how to support these organizations and creating pipelines and mechanisms to do so efficiently
- Innovations that can help to close funding gaps in underserved communities that do not have broad access to traditional banking services in the areas of both individual and business loans
- Innovations that drive investment in underserved communities by private investors
- Democratizing Access to Investment Capital: Investment capital plays a critical role in launching new ideas and businesses that can have far reaching impact from building wealth in underserved communities to creating game-changing innovations that improve whole industries. However, investment capital is historically difficult to access and limited to a select few, in a select few regions across the country. The goal of this focus area is to answer the question “How can they connect entrepreneurs to investors and capital so that they can launch potentially game-changing solutions and create economic growth in their communities?”
- Example Proposal Topics:
- Solutions designed to connect venture capital (VC) and angel investors with diverse entrepreneurs in a high engagement format
- Projects that create connected entrepreneur and investor ecosystems in underserved areas so that entrepreneurs can more easily keep the economic growth that they create in their communities
- Entrepreneur mentor programs that focus on fundraising strategies and how to overcome historical barriers to access
- Innovative financing tools and products that empower investment in small and medium sized businesses (SMBs) who are not a fit for VC but also not large enough for a traditional bank loan or line of credit
- Training and education for investors that can serve as a catalyst to reduce some of the historical barriers to democratized access
- Solutions that reduce barriers to inclusive and equitable investing, solving root cause issues
Funding Information
- Awards will range in size from $25,000 to $250,000.
Eligibility Criteria
- Solutions can be focused on the United States or globally
- Solutions must be targeting underserved and underrepresented communities
- Strength and readiness of applicant organization and team
- Potential for high impact
- Alignment with the foundation’s stated grant priorities
- Potential to be a sustainable solution after grant funding has been used
- Scale and reach potential including potential number of people impacted over the next five and ten years. The Foundation does consider pilots that could be a model for scale as long as those pilots consider how they’d disseminate learnings to expand their impact
- Innovation and incorporation of learnings from the attempts of others to tackle similar problems in the past
- Strength of partnerships and network within the industry to grow and expand
- Strategy’s focus on coordination and collaboration as well as an ability to leverage existing solutions and progress
- Please note that they wish to fund specific projects, pilots and innovations, not organizational operating budgets for this grant program
For more information, visit http://sorensonimpactfoundation.org/grant-rfp/