Location: San Francisco, CA

Partners in School Innovation (PartnersSI) is a service organization working to transform teaching and learning in the lowest-performing U.S. public schools so that every child, regardless of background, thrives in schools. PartnersSI believes that the single strongest lever for increasing student achievement is to improve the quality of teaching in schools. PartnersSI applies a research-based, systematic approach to achieving school and district transformation. Its staff work alongside school and district colleagues to achieve significant gains in student achievement, as well as build the organizational capacity required to sustain these results.

Since its founding in 1993, PartnersSI has partnered with over 10 districts and 50 schools serving over 65,000 students, teachers, and principals. By 2021, the organization plans to enable the successful transformation of at least three diverse urban school districts outside of the San Francisco Bay Area, help to train 10,000 educator change agents in districts around the country, and inform federal, state, and local policy arenas on districts, school, and teacher effectiveness.

To learn more about PartnersSI, please visit http://www.partnersinschools.org/

Location: New York, NY

Turnaround for Children, Inc. (“TFC”) strives to fulfill the promise of public education by helping high-poverty, low-performing public schools create positive learning environments that foster healthy intellectual, social, and emotional growth in every student. TFC envisions an America in which every public school, in every community, enables each student to reach his or her potential as a learner and citizen. TFC partners with schools serving high-poverty communities, increasing each school’s capacity to anticipate and better serve the needs of students.  TFC’s 3-4 year School Transformation Program focuses on building the school-wide proficiency of all staff in targeted behavioral and instructional practices, implementing critical systems of intervention and intensive support, and realigning mental health and social service systems, all of which enhance the school climate and optimize student performance.

With a central office in midtown Manhattan and programs in Harlem, the Bronx, and Washington DC, Turnaround expects to continue to grow and add programs in NYC as well as new areas around the Northeast next year.

Location: Washington, D.C.

“Proinspire unites a variety of individuals who have one common purpose – to be an agent of change.” - Reena Sikdar, 2010 ProInspire Fellow

ProInspire is building the next generation of nonprofit leaders by expanding the talent pipeline, developing professionals, and increasing diversity in the sector. We are passionate about accelerating social impact and being catalysts of outstanding performance.

Our flagship program, the ProInspire Fellowship, recruits top business professionals with 2-5 years of business experience who want to use their skills for social impact and to invest in a growing community of ProInspire fellows.  Fellows spend one year working in an analytical or strategic role at a nonprofit organization. After the Fellowship, Fellows engage with our community of alumni to continue investing in the sector.

This highly competitive program offers targeted positions with leading nonprofits, monthly trainings with a cohort of peers, a coach, and a network to support career growth. Previous ProInspire Fellows come from across the U.S. with experience at Bain, Credit Suisse, General Mills, J.P. Morgan, Microsoft, Parthenon Capital, and other leading companies.  Fellows work with top nonprofits based in the Washington D.C. area.

Location: Chicago, IL

The Center for Financial Services Innovation (CFSI) is the nation’s leading authority on financial services for underbanked consumers.  CFSI’s programs are based on the belief that addressing the needs of underbanked consumers as a market will deliver broad, long-term change throughout the financial services landscape by creating mutual benefit for both the underbanked and the companies serving them.  Therefore, CFSI works with leaders and innovators in the business, government and nonprofit sectors to transform the financial services landscape with programs focused on informing, connecting and investing – gathering enhanced intelligence, brokering and supporting productive industry relationships and fostering best-in-class products and strategies.  CFSI seeks to improve the quality and quantity of financial products and services, better shape them to the needs and desires of underbanked customers, and expand effective savings and asset acquisition opportunities. The organization spurs innovation to bridge the gaps that remain in creating a path to prosperity for underbanked consumers by:

• Developing market intelligence;
• Assessing existing products, services and strategies;
• Providing strategic advice;
• Promoting and facilitating marketplace partnerships;
• Influencing public policy;
• Investing in promising innovations and encouraging others to do so as well

Founded in 2004, CFSI has experienced dramatic growth in the last two years and is poised for further growth in 2012. The organization currently has a staff of 25 with offices in Chicago, New York and Washington, DC.  CFSI plans to build a more robust strategy, campaign and infrastructure to identify and develop relationships with the partners and supporters of the future and maintain relationships with our current stakeholders. CFSI is a fast-paced, entrepreneurial and highly collaborative environment. We are looking for people who share our values of innovation, passion, excellence, impact and directness. For more on CFSI, go to http://www.cfsinnovation.com

Location: Cambridge, MA

NEW PROFIT INC.’S MISSION AND GOALS
New Profit is a nonprofit venture philanthropy fund that exists to help innovative social entrepreneurs and their organizations bring about widespread and transformative impact on critical social problems. We work to fulfill this mission with two approaches: 1) providing multi-year financial and strategic support to help a portfolio of innovative social entrepreneurs and their organizations to realize their full potential for social impact; and 2) helping to build an environment in which all innovative organizations may achieve significantly greater impact on the problems they are trying to solve. New Profit believes that just as entrepreneurship and invention have driven our nation’s progress, so too can we harness America’s spirit of innovation, vision, and optimism to help solve our most pressing social problems.
With the support of individual investors and our signature partner, Monitor Group, New Profit works with social entrepreneur-led organizations tackling persistent social problems in education, workforce development, public health, and other areas. In addition, we bring together social innovators from across sectors at the annual Gathering of Leaders, and also drive other initiatives to release the potential of social entrepreneurship. Included among these is America Forward, a nonpartisan initiative that connects social sector innovators and their partners with policymakers, legislators, and thought leaders to advance an infrastructure for innovators and government to act together to scale the impact of proven and promising solutions.

PATHWAYS FUND
The Social Innovation Fund (SIF) is a new competitive grant program housed at the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) designed to expand innovative solutions to social sector problems with evidence of strong results in communities throughout America. The SIF represents an exciting opportunity at a critical moment for the nonprofit world, creating a new role for government as a catalyst for philanthropic partnerships that invests in proven solutions and taps into existing expertise and resources within the private and philanthropic sectors.  The SIF is tackling some of the country’s greatest social challenges by enabling effective ideas and organizations to grow and replicate to reach more children, families, and communities. 

New Profit is honored to be selected as a SIF intermediary organization.  In this capacity we have launched the Pathways Fund, which is dedicated to serving low-income youth transitioning from high-school to post-secondary education and productive employment.  The Fund grants dollars and provides necessary support to scale six of our nation’s most promising social innovations that focus on youth development.  The Pathways Fund is helping them to develop their base of evidence and expand their programs to serve 20,000 more low-income people in their teens and twenties in addition to the thousands they already serve.  These organizations are also collectively replicating to several new cities over the next five years, reaching many locations across the country that have not yet benefited from their innovative programs.

Location: New York, NY

Civic Builders is the oldest, largest and most successful charter school developer in the nation. Civic’s model for school development has earned numerous accolades and has been adopted by other development entities across the country. Since its inception in 2002, Civic has established a proven track-record of delivering high-quality charter school facilities on-time and on-budget.

Location: Washington, DC

Founded in 2006, Credit Builders Alliance (CBA) addresses the staggering fact that in today’s credit-dependent economy some 40% of American adults have no access to affordable bank credit. CBA is a nonprofit social enterprise that serves as a vital bridge between the large credit bureaus and the local community development organizations who work one on one to help underserved clients build credit as a financial asset. We are focused on increasing the transparency of the U.S. credit system and ensuring that its benefits are available to underbanked populations and communities. Our growing membership - a nationwide network of U.S. nonprofit organizations - includes nearly 300 nonprofit organizations that provide microfinance services and financial education to underbanked consumers in rural and urban communities across the country. CBA pursues its mission through three main activities:

• CBA Reporter—a one-stop shop providing ongoing technical support to empower hundreds of CDFIs, microfinance and community nonprofits in the U.S. to report monthly loan portfolio data via CBA to the major credit bureaus to build credit for underserved entrepreneurs and consumers
• CBA Access—opportunity for nonprofits to access consumer and business credit reports as part of financial education with underbanked individuals and entrepreneurs
• CBA Knowledge Sharing—online toolkit, webinars, workshops and on-site trainings for financial services nonprofits in the U.S. aimed at sharing best practices focused on financial capability and microloan service delivery to low-income and underbanked individuals and entrepreneurs

To learn more about Credit Builders Alliance, please visit http://www.creditbuildersalliance.org.

Location: Bellingham, WA

BALLE’s audacious vision is to create, within a generation, a global network of interconnected local economies that work in harmony with nature to support a healthy, prosperous and joyful life for all people.

At BALLE we believe that local business is the key to solving our communities’ toughest challenges and the smartest way to create real prosperity. So we connect the best people, ideas and resources from across North America to help make it happen. Founded in 2002, BALLE connects visionary local leaders so they can find inspiration and support. Through intense collaboration, we identify and promote the most innovative business models for creating healthier, sustainable and prosperous communities. And with a growing network of 25,000 local entrepreneurs spanning 80 communities, we’re leveraging our collective voice to drive new investment, scale the best solutions and harness the power of locally owned, independent business to transform the communities where we work and live.

Over the past decade, BALLE has grown steadily to become North America’s top organization dedicated to strengthening groups of local businesses that are focused on the sustainability and prosperity of their own communities. Today, BALLE is poised to dramatically accelerate its growth. With an enormous awakening energy toward local economies in the public consciousness, strong support of national Foundation partners, a dedicated and well-connected board and staff team, and a new strategic plan built with the input and support of visionary local leaders from across North America, BALLE’s time is now. 

To learn more about BALLE, please visit http://www.livingeconomies.org.

Location: Woburn, MA

Youth Villages is a nationally-recognized, private nonprofit organization that helps troubled youth and their families live successfully.  With a high-performing and dedicated staff of more than 2,400 working in 11 states as well as the District of Columbia and an annual operating budget approaching $200 million, the organization serves more than 17,000 emotionally and behaviorally challenged youth annually through its comprehensive, evidence-based programs: intensive in-home services, residential treatment, foster care, adoption, group homes, transitional living, specialized crisis services, and intensive residential treatment.

The organization, founded in Memphis, Tennessee in 1986, measures its success in reunited families and in children who are able to live at home and do well in school. Since 1994, when Youth Villages began an emphasis on helping children in the least restrictive environment—preferably in their own homes—success rates have soared: in 2011, Massachusetts data shows that 79 percent of the children who received at least 60 days of service at Youth Villages were discharged successfully and 74 percent of them were still living successfully in the community one year after their discharge. Youth Villages’ success rate is extraordinary when compared with a 60 percent failure rate for traditional child welfare services.

Along with the high impact on children’s lives, Youth Villages has also achieved 15% growth per year for the last fifteen years. President Obama recognized Youth Villages as a nonprofit with “promising ideas that are transforming communities.”  Youth Villages Chief Executive Officer, Patrick Lawler, was named one of “America’s Best Leaders” by U.S. News and World Report and the Center for Public Leadership at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.

For more information, please visit http://www.youthvillages.org

Location: New Orleans, LA

It is the mission of Gulf Coast Housing Partnership (GCHP) to revitalize the Gulf Coast through transformative development. Working in partnership with public, nonprofit, and private entities, GCHP creates vibrant, high quality communities which are socially and economically integrated affordable and sustainable.

GCHP was originally founded in 2006 by the Housing Partnership Network (HPN) in close collaboration with local civic leadership, network members from the Gulf Coast region and national financial institutions and foundations.  With seed capital provided by HPN and Enterprise Community Partners, GCHP strives to leverage its balance sheet on behalf of the partners and ventures to which it commits. 

GCHP is a social enterprise that reflects the organizational learning and experience of the most successful developers, long-term owners and lenders in the Housing Partnership Network (“the Network”). Our business strategy is based on building a financially sound organization whose leadership is focused on deploying company assets, in partnership with other entities and communities, to achieve measurable and productive results both immediate and long-term. GCHP melds talent, resources and commitment with sustainable productivity, which has positioned GCHP as a catalytic housing production partner in communities across the Gulf Coast region.  To learn more about GCHP, please visit:  http://www.gchp.net

Location: Cambridge, MA

The Center for Effective Philanthropy (CEP) is a nonprofit organization focused on the development of comparative data to enable higher-performing funders. CEP’s mission is to provide data and create insight so philanthropic funders can better define, assess, and improve their effectiveness – and, as a result, their intended impact. This mission is based on a vision of a world in which pressing social needs are more effectively addressed. It stems from a belief that improved effectiveness of philanthropic funders can have a profoundly positive impact on nonprofit organizations and the people and communities they serve.

Location: Washington, DC

Free the Slaves (FTS) knows that slavery flourishes when people cannot meet their basic needs, and lack economic opportunities, social protections, and knowledge about or ability to exercise their rights. We know that a holistic approach is required to eradicate slavery, and we believe it is possible to end slavery in our lifetime. To that end, FTS works with grassroots organizations to free people from slavery and help them rebuild their lives. We record and share survivors’ stories so people in power can see slavery and be inspired to work for freedom. We enlist businesses to clean slavery out of their product chains and empower consumers to stop buying into slavery. We work with governments to implement effective anti-slavery laws and hold them to their commitments, and we research what works and what doesn’t so that governments use resources effectively to end slavery.

To learn more about Free the Slaves, please visit http://www.freetheslaves.net

Location: San Francisco, CA

The Stupski Foundation is a private, not-for-profit operating foundation whose mission is to improve life options for children of color and poverty through transformation of the public education system.

The Stupski Foundation believes we need a public education system that meets the demands, realities and needs of today’s youth, and engages them actively in their own learning. To get there, we see youth and teachers leading a learning revolution that reinvents American education.  To learn more about Stupski Foundation, please visit us at:  http://www.stupski.org/

The Learning Lab Network:
To help spark innovation in learning, The Stupski Foundation, alongside key partners, has built a network of high school learning labs. The network will undertake a continuous testing and improvement cycle in classrooms to transform learning by incorporating student agency and technology. By sharing the pioneering learning already underway in these schools, we can connect, accelerate and ignite new activities in classrooms that engage youth in the important work facing our schools: conquer academic content, learn to work together, solve complex problems, and apply what works. To ensure that learnings are shared across networks and catalyze important changes in policy, this initiative is aligned with the Council of Chief State School Officers’ Partnership for Next Generation learning and the Innovation Lab Network.

Over the next three years, the Learning Labs will design, test and transform learning. To build a shared evidence base, labs will take common assessments, exchange data with each other, and engage in continuous improvement cycles as we learn what works. Through these repeated cycles, the labs will discover and document concrete practices that improve student agency, embed technology and ultimately result in dramatically increased student learning. Over time, this vital network of innovators will champion the learning successes and promote the practices that empower and educate young people. Together as a network, armed with data, student work, and stories of transformation, we will reinvent American education and expand life opportunities for all youth.

Location: Silicon Valley, CA

Founded in 2002 through a partnership between the San Jose Unified School District, Breakthrough Collaborative, and Applied Materials, Breakthrough Silicon Valley is a six-year, year-round, tuition-free academic and college readiness program committed to educational equity.  With an annual budget of approximately $500,000 and projected to grow to 1M in the next three years, , BSV provides middle school students with challenging out of school time classes and enriching activities and supports these students through their high school years to ensure that they enroll at top-tier colleges and universities.  Simultaneously, BSV trains talented high school and college students for careers in education.  The mission of BSV is to prepare motivated middle school students with limited educational opportunities for success in college-preparatory high school programs and entry into four-year colleges; and to prepare outstanding high school and college students to enter careers in education. .  As a member of the national Breakthrough Collaborative, BSV is affiliated with more than 30 programs across the country that share a similar mission based on the unique “students teaching students” model.

Breakthrough Silicon Valley is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that operates with a committed Board of Directors, talented staff, and strong community partnerships.  With a stable funding base and balanced budget, BSV is well poised to embark on its next exciting phase. 

Location: Boston, MA

The Klarman Family Foundation is a Boston-based family foundation, granting approximately $20 million each year to advance its philanthropic interests in the following areas:

• Enriching our local community and working collaboratively to address its urgent needs
• Advancing medical and scientific research, with a particular interest in behavioral health
• Promoting democratic ideals in the US and around the world
• Ensuring a strong and secure democratic, Jewish State of Israel
• Building a vibrant, engaged and inclusive Jewish community with connections to Israel and to the history of the Jewish people
• Promoting access to music for learning, listening and performing

Location: New York, NY

Public Interest Projects (PIP) brings together the work of philanthropic institutions, nonprofit groups and other public interest organizations who share a vision and commitment to creating a just society. PIP does this by making grants to nonprofits through its collaborative funds, fiscal sponsorships and special projects on behalf of foundations and donors committed to issues related to social justice and human rights.

Through its collaborative funds, PIP brings together donors with like-minded philanthropic goals and pools their resources, thereby maximizing the impact of their funding. PIP also provides strategic direction, day-to-day management, administrative support and financial oversight to a range of specialized groups and grantees working in the area of social justice.  Finally, PIP offers fiscal sponsorship services to philanthropic affinity groups that do not have nonprofit status so that they too can broaden their funding options and advance their causes.  PIP has experienced tremendous growth due to its success and plans to continue to increase their impact going forward.  To learn more about PIP, please visit our website:  http://www.publicinterestprojects.org/

Location: New York, NY

CWCID is a nonprofit financial services organization dedicated to economic opportunity for the working poor.  To that end, we have developed and honed a unique model which engages low-wage workers in their communities, provides tailored financial advisory services, and enrolls them in a “Gateway Banking” package as the starting point to financial security.

Today we are a leader in our field. We have achieved a citywide presence in New York, serving 7,000 people annually.  We are a major partner for the City’s Financial Empowerment Centers Initiative, and are supported by Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, The Robin Hood Foundation, and Single Stop USA among many others. 

We have exciting plans to scale our organization by adapting our model to the workplace.  We will position ourselves as a sustainable nonprofit “business to business” service – The Employer Solution—that leverages payroll and other employer systems to help low-wage workers achieve financial health. 

Our programmatic growth will be accompanied by a name change and a rebranding process resulting in new visual identity and messaging this year.  The launch of this brand will coincide with the move into a new 7,500 square foot headquarters, the “Getting Ahead Center”, in early 2012.

Location: San Fransico, CA

Breakthrough Collaborative (“Breakthrough”) is a leading national educational service organization.  Breakthrough has a dual mission: (1)  to prepare highly-motivated, under-resourced middle and high school students to enter and thrive in four-year colleges, and (2) to inspire and develop talented high school and college students as teachers and mentors to the younger students, and to pursue careers in the field of education.

The national headquarters of Breakthrough leads a collaborative of 33 sites across the United States and in Hong Kong by establishing and promoting high standards, ensuring their success, and acting as their national voice.  Breakthrough has been recognized as one of the 2010 winners of the Drucker Award for Nonprofit Innovation, as the nation’s top summer academic program by the John Hopkins Center for Summer Learning in 2007, and as the 2006 recipient of the prestigious Klingenstein Leadership Award from the Klingenstein Center at Columbia University.

For more information, please visit our website at http://www.breakthroughcollaborative.org

Location: Boston, MA

The District Management Council (DMC) is a fast-growing, entrepreneurial organization that supports CEO’s of public school districts as they seek to dramatically improve public education through helping them identify and implement management best practices.  DMC’s work falls into three major buckets:  consulting, leadership events and best practices.  Utilizing these three avenues, we serve primarily the largest 2,000 school districts in the nation, some of whom serve more than 1 million students and manage over a billion dollars in annual budgets.  Additionally, District and Community Partners, which is a division of DMC, is recognized as being on the leading edge in improving achievement of students with special needs.

The District Management Council is the nation’s premier network of public school district leaders and believes in creating lasting, positive change by focusing the best strategic and analytical consulting minds in the country on solving the most urgent questions facing public school districts in the United States.

Location: New York

Founded in 1999, iMentor has quickly become one of the largest and most innovative mentoring organizations in New York City.  Over the last nine years, iMentor has developed and refined a technology-enriched mentoring model, combining email communication and in-person meetings. As a result, iMentor can significantly boost the number of skilled professionals willing and able to mentor and bring mentoring to historically underserved communities.  iMentor revolutionizes mentoring by explicitly focusing every component of its model on personal, academic, and career outcomes.

iMentor Interactive (iMi) is one of iMentor’s two flagship programs.  iMi’s mission is to facilitate the development of high quality, high impact mentoring programs by partnering with organizations to implement mentoring programs in iMentor’s model.  This program addresses the most critical challenges facing underserved youth through an innovative combination of technical assistance, technology, curriculum, evaluation and ongoing support.

iMentor offers the opportunity to work at one of the fastest growing and most innovative youth-development programs in the country and to be a part of a diverse, results-oriented, and fun team.  Recently, iMentor was selected for inclusion in the first ever federal Social Innovation Fund and recognized as one of the Best 50 non-profits to Work by The Nonprofit Times.  To learn more about our programs, please visit our website at http://www.iMentor.org.

Location: Boston, MA

Currently the nation’s largest search firm working specifically with social entrepreneurs and growth-oriented nonprofits, Commongood Careers is committed to providing best-in-class search services to organizations such as New Profit, Inc., Playworks, Project HEALTH, BUILD, Share Our Strength and KIPP.  Founded in 2005 by a group of nonprofit professionals, we are celebrating our 5th anniversary and are poised for exciting growth.  We are leveraging and expanding our networks, continuing to innovate and improve upon our service delivery model, and have recently re-launched an exciting new career advising practice for socially-driven job seekers.  Commongood Careers is a fast-paced, entrepreneurial, and mission-driven work environment guided by the values of Purpose, Diversity, Respect, Innovation, Accountability, and Fun.  To learn more about us, please visit our website at http://www.cgcareers.org