A friend of mine, a master teacher, is fond of an exercise in which she asks her students to briefly study a dime and then, without looking back at it, write down 10 of its features. Most can only recall two or three. Then she asks students to join forces in small groups and, working together, most can now reconstruct the full list. How does this apply to our work at Lever for Change? We’ve learned that working in partnership with others often leads to increased productivity and better outcomes for all.

Since the inception of Lever for Change in 2019, we have developed and managed nine large-scale challenges to change the world. Working tirelessly toward our goal to unlock $1 billion in philanthropic giving by 2023, we have partnered with dozens of donors and amplified the work of hundreds of people and organizations with bold solutions to address the most intractable problems of our time.

Lever for Change is excited to launch Swift Grants – a new funding opportunity for Bold Solutions Network members offering small grants of up to $25,000 for collaborative projects.

When Lever for Change launched two years ago to unlock philanthropic capital that might otherwise remain on the sidelines, I initially suggested the name “Archimedes” for our new enterprise, because it was designed to move large amounts of philanthropic dollars for social change.

In 2019, we launched Lever for Change with the goal of unlocking significant philanthropic capital for transformative social change. We hoped our services would address the gap between wealthy donors' aspirations and their actual grantmaking.

We are undeniably in an era of rapid change. During these uncertain, complex times, when many are peacefully disrupting the status quo, we need to move forward differently, to be more innovative, more inclusive. We need to transform our thinking and acting in ways that will lead to justice and equity for all.

One of my early memories of my mom is watching her being arrested on the evening news. She and several friends were “sitting in” at the Trailways bus station lunch counter in Dallas, Texas. My mother, who designed and sewed her own clothes, always dressed up for marches and sit-ins. Even as a young child, I appreciated the performative aspect of her appearance—wearing a Chanel-inspired suit with matching handbag, shoes, and leather gloves, eating lunch at a counter where she might never have eaten voluntarily in a desegregated world.

On June 20, the world marked World Refugee Day—a global tradition established in 2001 to celebrate and highlight efforts to address the plight of refugees and displaced people. This year, in the midst of a global pandemic, World Refugee Day came and went with little fanfare or awareness.