The Corporation for National and Community Service has launched its Social Innovation Fund, starting the program off with inaugural grants that will direct millions in private and public funds toward 11 different nonprofits.
The corporation is dedicated to addressing increasing healthcare needs, closing the gap in achievement for low-income children and taking on economic challenges. To that end, the new SIF fund will be awarding money to a portfolio of organizations who were selected through a rigorous process that demonstrate the desire and ability to find solutions for problems in heathcare, education, youth development and personal financial management. The portfolio’s efforts will reach across 20 states.
"This portfolio is a collection of extraordinary organizations with an unparalleled body of knowledge and expertise on growing what works," said Patrick Corvington, the corporation’s CEO. "They are all driven by the search for bold solutions and recognize that we must use evidence to target limited resources where they will have the greatest impact."
The grants include $74 million in private donations, which, when combined with federal funds, total $123 million.
Of that prodigious sum, $7.7 million will go to Jobs for the Future, an organization that provides training and technical education to unemployed adults to provide them with marketable job skills. The two-year grant will be used to expand the organization’s operation, allowing it to work with more than 23,000 low-income individuals while addressing the skill needs of more than 1,000 employers.
Other organizations receiving grants include the Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City, which will receive $5.7 million; the National AIDS Fund, which will receive $3.6 million; and the Edna McDonnell Clark Foundation, which will receive $10 million.
Of the 11 organizations receiving funds, eight will be selecting subgrantees.
Paul Carttar, Director of the Social Innovation Fund, said the program "offers an avenue for community-driven solutions to grow and demonstrate their value."
The Corporation for National and Community Service was established in 1993 to meet the needs of the United States’ most vulnerable citizens. It works to connect individuals from all backgrounds with opportunities to get involved in bettering their communities and their nation.
Perhaps the most exciting aspect is the paradigm shift that SIF represents in how the government thinks about investing in social change. During the press conference to announce the SIF’s grantees, the Corporation’s CEO, Patrick Corvington, stated that, “Feeling good is not enough. Impact is what matters. Results are what matter.”
In our experience at Commongood Careers, SIF grantees can have the greatest impact by targeting their limited resources on “human capital.” And by human capital, we mean that to fully leverage growth capital, nonprofits must be able to recruit sufficient numbers of talented staff and volunteers, utilize proven management systems, and shape their cultures in order to position talent for success, development, and retention.
Having worked for years with several of the SIF grantees, as well as the organizations that they support, we have witnessed first-hand the results that these foundations achieve when they bring financial capital together with human capital.
Although many traditional foundations have either overlooked human capital issues or focused only occasionally on piecemeal support, pioneering groups like New Profit Inc., Venture Philanthropy Partners, and the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation have excelled in supporting a more complete range of human capital needs across their grantees.
Commongood Careers strongly encourages all SIF grantees to consider the impact that human capital will have on their efforts, as well as the many ways that they can help to control those outcomes. As a fundamental determinant of social return on investment, human capital can either be an unanticipated barrier to success or an effective catalyst for achieving it. The difference comes down to intent and strategy.