Call for Submissions: New Profit to Make Investment in Organizations Working Towards Health Equity
Note: This application period has closed.
UPDATE: New Profit is committed to being responsive to the needs of proximate social entrepreneurs and partners. In response to specific feedback we have received, our team has elected to update and clarify the eligibility criteria for applicants to the Health Equity Cohort.
We recognize that systems change efforts may not follow the same developmental path as other nonprofits and often are outgrowths of other programs or organizations. Thus, we are broadening our eligibility criteria and making the following changes:
- The organization has been in operation for two to five years OR
- The organization has been in existence for longer than 5 years, but there is a new program or initiative on health equity that is younger than 5 years. If the initiative is substantially independent (for example with dedicated staff, independent funding, or similar indicators) then it is eligible.
- The organization has been in existence for longer than 5 years but has had full-time staff for less than 5 years.
Our programming is designed to support early-stage organizations and individual social entrepreneurs and we want to make sure there is alignment between your organization’s needs and what we have to offer. Please email [email protected] if you have further questions.
If you are interested in joining the Health Equity Cohort, please fill out an application here by 5pm ET on November 16. Selected organizations will receive a $100K unrestricted Catalyze Investment grant along with New Profit cohort-based capacity-building support and participation in a peer learning community over the course of one year.
NOTE: If you have already applied – thank you! Your application will be read as submitted, and there is no need to re-submit. However, if you would like to update any part of your application, you are welcome to do so by submitting a new application here.
New Profit is now accepting applications for our Health Equity Cohort. Up to eight nonprofit organizations will receive a one-year $100,000 investment of unrestricted resources, in-kind capacity building support, and participation in a peer learning community through a collaboration between New Profit and Deloitte’s Health Equity Institute.
New Profit is seeking early-stage systems change leaders who are working to shift the underlying conditions that create health inequities across an individual lifespan and generations. Our intention is to expand the impact of social entrepreneurs working in the health equity space—within and beyond the field of healthcare itself —to drive toward more equitable health outcomes at scale.
Please see below for additional background on New Profit, our Catalyze Investments, and our specific goals for our Health Equity cohort.
An informational session was held on October 21. The session recording and slides are available in the “Resources” section below.
About New Profit’s Catalyze Investments
New Profit’s Catalyze Investments offer a synergistic support model to innovative early-stage organizations, creating value across several dimensions. This includes a peer learning community in each cohort, one-to-one adaptive leadership coaching, consultations with external content experts, New Profit’s tested capacity-building framework and tools, as well as $100,000 in unrestricted support over one to three years.
Through various initiatives, New Profit’s team works to catalyze the innovations of organizations led by leaders from underrepresented communities. These initiatives include: Civic Lab (democracy entrepreneurs), Postsecondary Innovation for Equity (postsecondary innovators), Unlocked Futures (entrepreneurs impacted by the American legal system), and now Health Equity.
While each cohort has different needs, the base of New Profit’s capacity-building program consists of:
-
- Refining systems theory of change and connecting it to a compelling story of impact
- Assessing organizational strengths and capabilities and areas for improvement
- Building effective boards of directors
- Developing effective practices for managing teams and stakeholders
- Identifying effective practices for operational excellence in order to execute against organizational strategy (fundraising, finance, HR, and communications)
- 1-2 additional topics identified by cohort members as areas of need
New Profit is seeking the most innovative social entrepreneur-led organizations in our country. For this investment cycle, we are prioritizing investing in leaders of color, with an emphasis on Black, Latina/o/x, and Indigenous Leaders. We are also interested in ensuring the perspectives of rural-based social entrepreneurs are reflected in our cohort.
About the 2022 Health Equity Cohort
Attention to public health, specifically health disparities, comes and goes as health crises arise and abate. Today, the COVID-19 pandemic and the disproportionate impact it has had on communities of color and low-income backgrounds have brought social and racial justice, as well as inequity, to the forefront of public health. Health care itself is only one factor that affects a person’s health—and oftentimes it is not the most important factor. We know that a person’s zip code, race, income, and other social, environmental, and economic conditions play a significant part in their health status and life expectancy.
We are looking to proximate leaders to transform the conditions that keep health inequities in place. To that end, New Profit, in collaboration with the Deloitte Health Equity Institute, is launching its first Health Equity Cohort. This cohort is intended to support a range of systems change approaches, including but not limited to: narrative change, advocacy, ecosystem development, and movement building.
While cohort organizations may include some direct service delivery in their approaches, we are not seeking models that are solely oriented towards the provisions of services to close health equity gaps. For more information about the way New Profit views systems change work and impact approaches, explore our recent publication, Deconstructing the Birdcage: How Social Entrepreneurs are Catalyzing Systems Change.
New Profit seeks to invest $100,000 in up to eight innovative systems-change nonprofit organizations and, provide capacity building programming over the course of one year, starting in February 2022. New Profit’s investments are guided by four principles:
-
- We believe systems change entrepreneurs who are proximate to the communities disproportionately affected by health disparities should be at the helm of leading efforts to achieve health equity.
- We invest in organizations that bring heightened awareness to the importance of centering equity and proximity within health equity approaches.
- We need innovative solutions that target the underlying structural and systemic conditions that work to undermine fair access to resources and opportunities for communities that have been historically oppressed and overlooked.
- We are committed to diversity of demographics, thought, and geography to unleash solutions that target many systems levels and pain points that contribute to health inequities.
Addressing health inequities is a crucial element in driving toward inclusive prosperity in our country. Therefore, we are seeking to invest in organizations that focus their efforts in one or more of the following root causes of health inequity: non-medical drivers of health (e.g. access to healthy food, jobs, housing, etc.), racism and bias inside and outside the healthcare system, and structural flaws in the healthcare system.
Eligibility
Organizations applying to the Health Equity cohort must fit the following criteria to apply. If your organization does not meet the eligibility criteria at this time but you would like to be notified of future funding opportunities, we recommend that you complete this optional form to submit your information. Additionally, we see this application process as a crucial opportunity to learn from a broad set of leaders and organizations about how they define health equity and their approaches to increasing equitable health outcomes in our nation. Even if this funding cycle opportunity is not for you, we hope you will consider providing us some information to inform our learning and put you on our radar for future investment cycles.
We define a Social Entrepreneur (often the CEO or equivalent title) as both the leader and final decision-maker of an organization’s internal/external strategy, daily operations and financial decisions—outside of your board, the buck stops with you.
-
- Organization or fiscal sponsor must be a 501(c)(3)
- Organization’s work must be focused on health equity
- Organization has been in operation for two to five years OR
- The organization has been in existence for longer than 5 years, but there is a new program or initiative on health equity that is younger than 5 years. If the initiative is substantially independent (for example with dedicated staff, independent funding, or similar indicators) then it is eligible (Updated)
- The organization has been in existence for longer than 5 years but has had full-time staff for less than 5 years (Updated)
- Social entrepreneur (CEO/ED) must work for organization on a full-time (~40 hours/week) basis
- Social entrepreneur plans to stay at the organization for the duration of cohort programing
- Social entrepreneurs must commit to engaging in
- monthly 1:1 coaching
- three convenings (typically spread out over 2-3 days; likely virtual but possibly in-person in later 2022)
- three 2-3-hour virtual learning sessions over the course of one year. If or when it is safe to resume in-person gatherings, convenings will be held in Boston, MA
- Ability to commit to and attend ALL programming is required for selection into the Health Equity cohort. Convening #1 will be held March 8 – 10, 2022. All other program dates will be shared during the interview process. Again, convenings may be virtual or held in person in Boston when it is safe to do so
Resources
Note: This application period has closed.
The deadline to submit applications was 5 PM ET on November 16, 2021.
An information session was held on October 21, 2021, and we are pleased to share a recording of the session here.
The slides from the information session are available for your review here.
To learn more and/or apply, please refer to the following resources.
For any questions, please contact [email protected] and include “Health Equity” in the subject line.
About New Profit
New Profit is a venture philanthropy organization that backs social entrepreneurs who are advancing equity 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 $325+ million in more than 165 early- and later-stage social enterprises.
About the Deloitte Health Equity Institute
Recognizing the imperative for immediate and sustained effort, and grounded in Deloitte’s acknowledgement of racism as a public health crisis, Deloitte established the Deloitte Health Equity Institute (DHEI) in Spring 2021. DHEI is dedicated to creating public good through data-driven pro bono services, philanthropy and research. DHEI builds on Deloitte’s commitment to advance health equity, informed by work with clients, a decade of impact made by our Deloitte Center for Health Solutions, and our perspective on how life sciences and health care organizations can activate health equity.
The DHEI reinforces Deloitte’s purpose of making a positive, enduring impact that matters. By collaborating with local and national organizations, DHEI is a catalyst, helping advance health equity at scale. Each of our initiatives aims to help everyone achieve their full potential in all aspects of health and well-being, building a more equitable society for all.
Please see www.deloitte.com/us/about for a detailed description of their legal structure.