New Profit is thrilled to announce investments of $1.5M each in two nonprofit organizations driving transformational change in democracy and economic mobility in America. These organizations, Liberation Ventures and Washington Housing Conservancy, are led by visionary entrepreneurs who center the assets, expertise, and aspirations of the communities they serve, aligning with New Profit’s mission to build an America where everyone can thrive. 

This unrestricted funding is coupled with strategic advisory support through a four-year term to help each organization deepen its impact, broaden its scale, and drive systems-level change. 

We invest in organizations with deep connections to the people they serve, who use human-centered approaches that appreciate the intersections of the various systems that drive economic mobility and democracy, and who seek to influence and reimagine those systems through their work.

Liberation Ventures 

Liberation Ventures is building a multiracial democracy that works for all of us – by making racial repair a reality in the United States. Founded in April 2020, Liberation Ventures’ ultimate aim is to build public will for a comprehensive, federal, financial, and non-financial reparations policy portfolio in the United States. As an intermediary, Liberation Ventures is a field catalyst for the movement, resourcing and supporting the ecosystem of organizations working for reparations and repair for Black Americans. Liberation Ventures serves as the connective tissue between activists and organizations within the movement, adjacent to the movement, and outside the movement. The organization leverages three strategic pillars to advance its work: mobilizing resources, building narrative power, and providing capacity-building support and connective tissue across the ecosystem.

An alumnus of New Profit’s 2021 Catalyze Civic Lab Cohort, Liberation Ventures is led by Co-founder and CEO Aria Florant. Aria has been working in partnership with Truth, Justice, and Reconciliation (TJR) movement leaders, including current New Profit Build portfolio organization Beloved Community Center, to forge connections and accelerate progress in this field. She is a visionary, a bridge-builder, and an adaptive systems leader. Under her leadership, Liberation Ventures has attracted support from a wide range of sector leaders across philanthropy, academia, and think tanks including from The Bridgespan Group, Brookings Institution, PolicyLink, and now New Profit. 

Washington Housing Conservancy 

Founded in 2018, the Washington Housing Conservancy (WHC) is dedicated to tackling the systemic inequities in the affordable housing crisis through reimagining the role and influence of housing developers to promote, advance, and sustain the economic mobility of its residents. WHC is committed to preserving housing affordability where it does not currently exist for long-term, moderate to low income tenants of color, particularly Black tenants, of the DC, Maryland, and Virginia (DMV) area. Leveraging their core strategies of inclusive property management, community-building & placemaking, and financial health development and wealth building, WHC is disrupting inequitable housing practices and empowering and connecting residents with resources they need to stay, work, and live in the DMV area. WHC is actively working to influence the national housing equity movement by partnering with others to adopt key elements of its model in different cities. Recent innovations like the organization’s Housing + Mobility Lab funded by TD Bank is one of the ways WHC is building a network of national stakeholders interested in adopting WHC’s model in their cities. 

An alumnus of New Profit’s 2021 Catalyze Health Equity Catalyze Cohort, the Washington Housing Conservancy is led by Executive Director Kimberly Driggins, a nationally recognized expert who has an extensive background in affordable housing, urban planning, real estate development, and policy. Prior to her appointment at WHC, she previously served as Director of Strategic Planning/Arts and Culture for the City of Detroit’s Planning and Development Department and as Associate Director for Citywide Planning for the District of Columbia’s Office of Planning. Kimberly has a BA degree from Hampton University and an MPP from the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy. She was awarded the prestigious Loeb Fellowship from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design in 2015.  

About New Profit

New Profit is a venture philanthropy organization that backs social entrepreneurs who are expanding access and opportunity in America. 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.