Knowledge
Creating a factsheet for a project can be a powerful way to communicate about your program to potential funders and other key stakeholders. Factsheets are often used for promotional and fundraising purposes and, if done well, they can help tell the story of an organization’s work in a dynamic and pithy way.
Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors (“RPA”), in partnership with Columbia Business School, and with support from Lever for Change and others, has been taking a deep dive into the world of large-scale prize philanthropy.
At Lever for Change, we help donors find and fund bold solutions to the world’s biggest problems. We provide philanthropic expertise, no matter the experience, staffing levels, or interests of our clients. Our team connects donors with our growing network of problem solvers through customized challenges. The finalists become members of our Bold Solutions Network. We work with Network members to ensure they are well-positioned to absorb philanthropic resources at scale and amplify their impact. Learning is vital to everything we do.
Capturing and analyzing the diversity of gender identities, disability, and geographic distribution among our panel of experts who help evaluate project proposals is quite straightforward. It’s less so for their race and ethnicity. Last year, Lever for Change started testing a demographic survey with closed-ended options for race and ethnicity that are granular enough to be globally relevant and allow us to spot patterns of inequality.
The past two years have been a learning experience for us all, with the continued national reckoning with racial inequity, magnified by health inequities that COVID-19 has brought to light.
In 2021, our team at Lever for Change engaged in an information refresh process with members of our growing network of problem solvers, the Bold Solutions Network, which showcases the highest-ranked proposals that have emerged from each of our challenges.
Lever for Change’s Bold Solutions Network matches donors with outstanding nonprofits and social enterprises that are selected as finalists in Lever for Change competitions. Bold Solutions Network members are then eligible to access learning and technical support opportunities in the form of webinars, pro bono services, coaching, workshops, cohort support, and peer networking. These opportunities are designed to continue to help strengthen members' project design and plans, as well as to increase the impact of their work.
As we approach the end of our fast-paced, 10-week summer internship program at Lever for Change, we have been trying to answer a question that is central to the work of the organization: How can we tell impactful stories that will accelerate large-scale change in philanthropy? To that end, we have evaluated how stories can and should engage an audience, how Lever for Change is using storytelling to write their own narrative as an organization, and what these findings mean for the future.
Columbia Business School students reviewed the highest-rated applications in the MacArthur Foundation's 100&Change competition (using a rubric created by the MacArthur Foundation and Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors) and then awarded $100,000 to Futures Without Violence.
Lever for Change's Vice President of Philanthropy, Dana Rice, offers tips for how we can work together to capitalize on your status as a Bold Solutions Network member.
In August 2020, our social impact partner, IMAGO Global Grassroots, hosted a coaching series focused on feminine leadership for members of our Bold Solutions Network, which matches donors with outstanding nonprofits and social enterprises from Lever for Change competitions.
Earlier this year, Lever for Change launched its Bold Solutions Network to match donors with nonprofits and social enterprises proposing solutions to significant social challenges. Lever for Change supports Network member organizations—whose “bold solutions” were highly rated after rigorous evaluation in its competitions—by providing ongoing learning and networking opportunities to strengthen their work, raise their visibility, and increase their potential to secure funding. In April 2020, Lever for Change launched a partnership with our skills-based volunteering platform, Catchafire, to help strengthen Bold Solutions Network members on organizational and operational needs.