The Corporation for National and Community Service has released a draft of the Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) for the 2011 Social Innovation Fund competition.This release will initiate a public input period that will extend until January 21, 2011.
Click here for the draft.
The Social Innovation Fund is an innovative program that awards grants to and works with existing grantmaking institutions, referred to in the Notice as "intermediaries," to direct resources to innovative community-based nonprofit organizations that will identify and grow promising programs with preliminary evidence of effectiveness. These programs will address challenges facing local communities in three priority issue areas:
The Social Innovation Fund embraces a belief that many compelling solutions to the persistent problems of low-income communities have already been developed and successfully implemented, albeit on a limited scale, by social entrepreneurs and nonprofit organizations working in those very communities, who have a deep understanding of the problems and bring passion and fresh, practical thinking to the challenge of solving them.
Accordingly, the Social Innovation Fund aims to identify those community-based organizations with the greatest potential for generating increased impact, help them strengthen their evidence base, and proactively support the growth of their work in order to significantly improve the lives of more people in more low-income communities.
The Social Innovation Fund is taking additional steps towards transparency consistent with CNCS's commitment to transparency. The NOFO indicates that CNCS plans to release the names and executive summaries of all applications considered for funding, the names of all expert reviewers, and the reviewer comments for all selected grantees. The public comment period will allow us to gauge the sector's thoughts on this issue.
To expand the number of intermediaries able to participate in the Social Innovation Fund, the CNCS has decreased the maximum dollar amount for which intermediaries can apply from $10 million to $7 million. The minimum level will remain at $1 million.
To stimulate the identification of additional high-impact community-based organizations throughout the U.S., intermediaries will not be permitted to include pre-selected subgrantees in their applications. All intermediary applicants will select all of their subgrantees through open, competitive processes initiated after receipt of their award.
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