Lever for Change is a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation affiliate, whose mission is to unlock significant philanthropic capital and accelerate social change around the world’s most pressing challenges.
Lever for Change helps philanthropists source vetted, high-impact opportunities in two ways: by designing and managing customized competitions and by matching them with the top vetted proposals from all of its competitions in the Bold Solutions Network, a searchable online database.
Our Approach
We are committed to matching philanthropists with powerful solutions and problem solvers to accelerate social change. Our approach enables philanthropists to achieve their ambitions by providing them with the tools and resources to maximize their giving. We give social change organizations the opportunity to think big while preparing them to achieve more dramatic results at a deeper scale. Together, we can help solve society’s greatest challenges.
Lever for Change provides philanthropists and philanthropic advisors with the expertise, infrastructure, and support to identify the best ideas and solutions that align with their interests and passions. Lever for Change manages customized competitions with a minimum award size of $10 million, supports philanthropists in their due diligence and selection process, and provides on-going support to grant recipients over the life of the award.
Lever for Change competitions use a transparent and open process to source, vet, and evaluate proposals in areas chosen by philanthropists. If a philanthropist wants to find a large philanthropic opportunity in, for example, public education, oceans, women’s empowerment—or any number of other fields—Lever for Change uses its staff and resources to run a customized competition in that field.
For philanthropists who prefer other options to maximize their philanthropic giving, Lever for Change will help them identify opportunities from among the top vetted proposals of any competition.
For applicants, Lever for Change offers access to potentially transformational gifts of $10 million or more, along with technical assistance to strengthen their appeal to donors and to deepen the impact of their work. Applicants from each competition will receive constructive feedback from judges, access to webinars, and peer learning opportunities. Additional resources that provide more intensive support, such as cohort-based workshops and coaching, may also be available to select organizations and collaborations. Furthermore, Lever for Change provides top applicants opportunities to gain greater visibility for funding from an array of philanthropists. The top-ranked proposals are showcased in the Bold Solutions Network, a searchable online collection of the highest-ranked proposals that emerge from all of the competitions managed by Lever for Change.
For the field, Lever for Change is a public good that helps strengthen the social sector by creating a marketplace for sharing vetted, high-impact ideas for addressing social challenges. Lever for Change is using the data collected to generate sharable insights that will help improve the performance of other social sector organizations, philanthropists, and initiatives.