Call for Discovery Submissions: New Profit to Launch Grantmaking Cycle for Unlocked Futures Catalyze Cohort

New Profit’s Catalyze cohorts support innovative social impact organizations expanding access and opportunity in America. This model brings together cohorts of organizations with similar focus areas and stages, providing each with a one-year $100,000 unrestricted grant, a $10,000 unrestricted grant for leadership development, and strategic advisory support. Social Entrepreneurs* participate in a year-long cohort experience that prioritizes building peer community, facilitating peer learning, and providing capacity-building programming, including workshops on board development, fundraising, scenario planning, and storytelling. 

The Unlocked Futures cohort will provide funding to organizations led by formerly incarcerated and directly impacted Social Entrepreneurs to increase visibility and remove barriers to capital for directly 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.

To be considered for the 2026 grantmaking cycle for this cohort, interested organizations are invited to complete New Profit’s Discovery Form by Wednesday, February 11, at 8:59pm PT/11:59pm ET.

Please review the eligibility criteria outlined below to confirm your organization’s fit with the cycle before submitting a Discovery Form for Unlocked Futures. 

Invitations to complete a full application to this year’s cycle will be sent in March to organizations considered a strong fit based on alignment with New Profit’s portfolio investing strategic 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 2026 and beyond. 

*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.

Submitting a New Profit Discovery Form 

Submitting a Discovery Form communicates that 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 apply. Submitting a Discovery Form does not mean you are submitting an application. Learn more about our Discovery Form here.

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

If you have submitted a Discovery Form within the last 12 months or have previously applied to the Unlocked Futures cohort, please reach out to [email protected], 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.

Discovery Forms must be submitted via this link by the due date for consideration. 

Catalyze Support Model

Catalyze cohorts bring together groups of amazing leaders to learn together over a 12-month period with a mix of capital, capacity building, and community. Through Catalyze cohorts, New Profit has invested in 240 organizations in recent years, with 86% of Social Entrepreneurs who participated in cohorts reporting that New Profit helped amplify their level of impact. 

Catalyze cohorts are at their best when cohort members are fully engaged. The Social Entrepreneurs that lead selected organizations are expected to participate in the Catalyze support model and peer learning community in the following ways: 

• Social Entrepreneurs attend three in-person convenings, each of which are held across three to four days. Convening dates for this cohort will be shared with organizations invited to complete a full application.
• Social Entrepreneurs attend three virtual learning sessions, each lasting 2-3 hours. Webinar dates for this cohort will be shared with organizations invited to complete a full application.
• Social Entrepreneurs engage with the New Profit team via strategic advising sessions (e.g. 60-minute strategic advising calls every other month).
• Entrepreneurs receive a $10,000 stipend specifically to support their own leadership development goals. 

Programming requires a commitment of 6-8 hours per month on average. New Profit covers the cost of travel, accommodation, and meal expenses for each in-person convening.

Catalyze Cohort Eligibility Criteria

Organizations interested in being considered for the Catalyze 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 its fiscal sponsor is an independent 501(c)(3) public charity.

3. Annual expenses: Organization’s annual expenses for its most recently closed fiscal year are 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). 

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. 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. 

7. Aligned with Strategic Priorities: Organization is aligned with New Profit’s Portfolio Investing Strategic Priorities, outlined below. 

New Profit’s Portfolio Investing Strategic Priorities

At New Profit, we believe in an evolution of America—one that enables access and opportunity for all to thrive. We invest in organizations with a range of impact models that seek to transform the intertwined systems of opportunity in education, economic mobility, and democracy. We are driven by the belief that those who are closest to the communities they serve are those with the most effective solutions.    

New Profit’s Unlocked Futures cohort seeks to increase visibility, remove barriers to capital, and build community with Social Entrepreneurs and communities who have been impacted by the criminal legal 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 break this cycle, live with dignity and 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 criminal 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, an organization must be led by a Social Entrepreneur or Social Entrepreneurs who identify as formerly incarcerated or directly impacted.

We will be prioritizing organizations led by and serving directly impacted communities that center economic opportunity as a primary focus in their mission and the core outcomes they’re working towards. New Profit’s economic opportunity focus areas include the following:

• Pathways to Income Generation: Creates or expands opportunities that lead to stable, dignified income for people impacted by the criminal, legal, or immigration detention systems. This may include: (1) fair-chance hiring models or partnerships; (2) skills-based workforce pathways tailored to systems-impacted individuals, (3) worker power, worker rights, or living-wage employment models; and (4) entrepreneurship programs or business incubation for system-impacted founders.
• Social Drivers of Economic Opportunity: Addresses the structural barriers that hinder economic advancement for returning citizens and people directly impacted by the criminal, legal, or immigration system. This may include: (1) reentry supports connected to housing, transportation, childcare, or healthcare; (2) strategies that reduce collateral consequences that prevent employment or economic participation; and (3) community-based solutions that strengthen safety, belonging, and opportunity.
• Financial Health & Wealth Creation: Advances long-term financial stability and wealth-building strategies for directly impacted individuals and communities. This may include: (1) access to capital and credit-building for formerly incarcerated entrepreneurs; (2) community ownership, cooperative economics, or shared wealth models; (3) guaranteed income, reparations, or financial justice innovations; and (4) tools that help people build assets, withstand economic shocks, or invest in future stability.

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 [email protected].

About New Profit

New Profit is a venture philanthropy organization that catalyzes the impact of social entrepreneurs who are expanding access and opportunity in America. We provide capital, capacity, and community to a portfolio of organizations to increase their impact, scale, and sustainability. And we partner with social entrepreneurs, philanthropists, and cross-sector leaders to shift how the philanthropic sector pursues social change and ensures that everyone in America can thrive. Since 1998, New Profit has invested over $350M in 275+ high-impact organizations serving more than 35 million people in all 50 states.