I am delighted and humbled to share the news that we have surpassed our initial goal of helping donors award $1 billion in funding! Since Lever for Change launched as a pilot project in 2019, our mission has been to help donors find and fund bold solutions to some of the world’s biggest problems.
Our initial hope was to drive $1 billion for bold solutions by 2023. Thanks to the initial commitments of 11 donors who sponsored customized challenges and dedicated efforts to leverage additional philanthropic capital, we have exceeded that goal a year early! So far, the sponsors of our challenges have given a total of $413 million to outstanding organizations. Ninety additional donors have contributed $651 million to finalists and other highly rated proposals.
This progress would not have been possible without the interest and support of our many partners: investors in Lever for Change who help subsidize our operations, donors who provide the funding for challenges we design and manage, judges who help evaluate proposals, key advisors who help us design and manage the process behind the scenes, strategic consultants who help finalists revise their proposals and strengthen their case for support, and, of course, the many problem solvers who share their vision for a better future. We are also grateful to our team of experts who work tirelessly behind the scenes to make these partnerships possible with dedication and passion.
Our problems as a nation and as a global community are not insurmountable if we work together to achieve ambitious goals, but $1 billion is one small step. Our goal is to build a philanthropic sector that is as bold as the change it seeks to achieve. To that end, we have set our sights on a new target: we plan to leverage a total of $2.5 billion in funding by 2025. We believe this goal is both possible and necessary.
Achieving this new target will require that we build on what we have learned, adapting our services to meet both the needs of donors and the organizations they support. Sign up for our newsletter to receive regular updates about our work and to stay informed about our learnings.
We are confident that the future is bright for Lever for Change and the many donors and problem solvers in our network who want to change the world. We hope you will join us.
Cecilia Conrad
CEO, Lever for Change