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 biggest challenges.
Building off the success of 100&Change, the MacArthur Foundation’s breakthrough $100 million competition, Lever for Change helps philanthropists source vetted, high-impact philanthropic opportunities and connects nonprofits and problem solvers to significant amounts of philanthropic capital. Lever for Change does this through managing customized competitions for philanthropists or by matching them with the top vetted proposals from such competitions in a searchable online database of solutions. Through a rigorous, open, and transparent approach, Lever for Change aims to inspire philanthropists to dramatically increase their giving by helping them source and identify the most promising ideas that will significantly impact the issues they care about most.
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. Are you ready to place a big bet on a solution to a critical challenge?
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 impact. 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 be available to select organizations and collaborations. Furthermore, Lever for Change will provide top applicants opportunities to gain greater visibility for funding from an array of philanthropists. The strongest proposals will be housed in the Bold Solutions Network that will be made available to donors to identify powerful ideas that match their interests and passions.
For the field, Lever for Change is a public good that will help strengthen the social sector by creating a marketplace for sharing vetted, high-impact ideas for addressing social challenges. Lever for Change will use the data collected to generate sharable insights that will help improve the performance of other social sector organizations, philanthropists, and initiatives.