Note: The due date to submit a New Profit Discovery Form to be considered for this year’s Unlocked Futures cohort has passed. New Profit will also continue to accept Discovery Form submissions on a rolling basis throughout the year for grantmaking cycles taking place in 2025 and beyond.

New Profit, through its Catalyze cohort in Unlocked Futures, will provide $100,000 of one-year unrestricted funding, $10,000 of funding for leadership development, and strategic advisory support to ten innovative nonprofit organizations focused on expanding access and opportunity in America. 

The Unlocked Futures cohort will provide funding to organizations led by justice-impacted social entrepreneurs to increase visibility and remove barriers to capital for justice-impacted individuals and communities, including those who have been incarcerated or detained in a prison, immigration detention center, local jail, juvenile detention center, or any other carceral setting, those who have been convicted but not incarcerated, those who have been charged but not convicted, and those who have been arrested (LSAC).

New Profit invites interested organizations to complete this Discovery Form, which asks for basic organizational information and six long-form questions about the organization’s core constituents, program model, and impact. To be considered for this year’s grantmaking cycle for the Unlocked Futures cohort, please submit a New Profit Discovery Form by Thursday, July 18, 2024 at 11:59 pm ET / 8:59 pm PT. Invitations to complete a full application to this year’s cycle will be sent in August to organizations considered a strong fit based on alignment to New Profit’s investment strategies and priorities – see below for more information. 

New Profit will also continue to accept Discovery Form submissions on a rolling basis throughout the year for grantmaking cycles taking place in 2025 and beyond. 

Submitting a New Profit Discovery Form 

Submitting a Discovery Form communicates you are interested in funding from New Profit and gives us baseline information to help assess strategic alignment to a given grantmaking cycle before inviting organizations to invest the time in applying. Submitting a Discovery Form does not mean you are submitting an application. 

If you are interested in being considered for the upcoming Catalyze grantmaking cycle in Unlocked Futures, select “Cycle-specific submission” in the “Submission Type” section of the Discovery Form. Otherwise, select “General Submission.”

If you have submitted a Discovery Form within the last 12 months, please reach out to selection@newprofit.org and we will send you a unique link to review and edit your prior submission. Otherwise, please fill out a new form for us to review. 

If you’d like, download an editable version of the Discovery Form to draft your responses. Discovery Forms must be submitted via this link by the due date for consideration.

Catalyze Support Model

Catalyze cohorts are at their best when cohort members are fully engaged. The Catalyze support model asks that Social Entrepreneurs engage with New Profit and their cohort peer learning community in the following ways: 

• • Social Entrepreneurs attend three in-person convenings, which are each three days
  • Social Entrepreneurs attend three 3-hour virtual learning sessions
  • Social Entrepreneurs engage with the New Profit Cohort Team via strategic advising sessions (e.g. 60-minute strategic advising calls every other month)

Programming requires a commitment of 6-8 hours per month on average. New Profit covers travel, accommodation, and meal expenses for each in-person convening. The first few programming dates will be provided to organizations invited to complete a full application, and the selected cohort will have input into the remaining programming dates.

Catalyze Portfolio Eligibility Criteria

Organizations interested in being considered for the Unlocked Futures cohort must meet the following eligibility criteria:

1. Focus on the United States: Organization operates in and primarily serves communities in the United States and its territories.
2. 501(c)(3) status: Organization or fiscal sponsor is an independent 501(c)(3).
3. Annual expenses: Organization’s annual expenses for its most recently closed fiscal year is between $250,000 and $2 million. 
4. Led by a full-time Social Entrepreneur(s): Organization must be led by at least one Social Entrepreneur employed on a full-time basis (~30 hours/week). We define a Social Entrepreneur (often the Chief Executive Officer, Executive Director, or equivalent title) as both the leader and final decision-maker of an organization’s internal/external strategy, daily operations, and financial decisions. Organizations with co-leadership models will be considered.
5. Programmatic operation for at least two years: Organization has operated its program or impact approach for at least two years. We are looking to fund organizations that have operated the core elements of their programming for at least two years. Organizations must have demonstrated clarity of theory of action and model for two or more years. Legal structure over that time period is less important – an organization does not need to have had 501(c)(3) or fiscal sponsorship status for two or more years, as long as they have it at the time of submission.
6. Not a previous New Profit grantee: Organization has not previously received investment from New Profit’s Build or Catalyze portfolios. We are unable to consider organizations that have previously received funding through New Profit’s Build or Catalyze portfolios.

New Profit’s Portfolio Investing Strategies and Priorities

The purpose of New Profit’s portfolio investing is to advance access and opportunity in communities that have been consistently and systematically under-resourced. Therefore, New Profit invests in organizations with a range of impact models that seek to transform the systems in which they operate. Recognizing that people who are close to a system or issue have expertise that can enable impact and sustainability, New Profit also invests in organizations whose leaders engage in proximity as a continuous practice. These leaders have lived experience with, and demonstrated regard for, the communities they support. Lastly, New Profit invests in leaders and organizations that believe in the possibility of multiracial, intergenerational, and cross-sector coalitions ( the M.I.C.™) to solve problems and build stronger systems.   

Unlocked Futures: New Profit’s Unlocked Futures cohort seeks to increase visibility of, remove barriers to capital to, and build community with social entrepreneurs and communities who have been impacted by the justice system. These barriers—including lack of access to formal job training, limited housing options, and hiring restrictions due to criminal records—leave 60 percent of formerly incarcerated individuals unemployed one year after their release, contributing to the recidivism cycle that damages so many communities. Entrepreneurship is one of the most viable economic pathways for the formerly incarcerated to escape this cycle, live with dignity, self determination and contribute to their communities. Unlocked Futures aims to open the opportunity equation and remove barriers to entrepreneurship for people whose experience with the American legal system provides them with unmatched expertise and insight into how we build alternatives to incarceration and improve the current system.

To align with New Profit’s investment strategy in Unlocked Futures, which aims to increase visibility and remove barriers to capital for justice-impacted communities, an organization must be led by a social entrepreneur or social entrepreneurs who identify as justice-impacted or formerly incarcerated.

We will be prioritizing, though not exclusively selecting, organizations led by and serving justice-impacted communities that center economic opportunity as a primary focus in their mission and the core outcomes they’re working towards.

If your organization does not center economic opportunity in its work but is eligible based on all other criteria, we encourage you to apply.

For any questions, please contact selection@newprofit.org with “2024 Catalyze Discovery” in the subject line. 

About New Profit

New Profit is a venture philanthropy organization that backs social entrepreneurs who are advancing access and opportunity in the U.S. 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 250+ organizations and, through the America Forward Coalition’s collective advocacy efforts, has unlocked over $1.9B in government funding for social innovation.