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Highly-ranked applicants in the competitions Lever for Change manages are eligible to become Bold Solutions Network (BSN) members. BSN members have access to ongoing learning opportunities offered through Lever for Change. These opportunities are designed to continue to help strengthen members' project design and plans, as well as to increase the impact of their work.
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.
Launched in February, the Bold Solutions Network is a searchable online collection of summaries of highly-rated, rigorously evaluated proposals, or “bold solutions,” that emerge from the competitions Lever for Change manages. The Bold Solutions Network helps donors find and fund highly-rated, vetted proposals on topics they care about.
Six bold solutions to critical social challenges were named finalists today in 100&Change, a global competition for a single $100 million grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. The proposals address diverse and systemic problems, such as ocean health, homelessness, oxygen therapy, health disparities, news deserts, and mosquito-borne disease.
Cecilia Conrad is that rare individual who can do more work than multiple high-level executives combined, makes it look easy and charms in the process. She is CEO of Lever for Change and Managing Director of the Fellows (Genius Grants) and 100&Change programs. at the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.
On June 29, 2020, Mayor Lori E. Lightfoot joined Maurice Cox, Commissioner of the Chicago Department of Planning and Development, to announce the recipients of $11 million in grant funding to support key INVEST South/West projects. The funding will help to close capital stack gaps for two critical developments in the Auburn Gresham and North Lawndale neighborhoods.
Bradford K. Smith, President of Candid, shares how the Solutions Bank has the potential to reshape philanthropy to be more open, efficient, and democratic.