69 Applicants Vie for Grants From Social Innovation Fund

The Corporation for National and Community Service has received 69 applications for the $50-million in grants that the Social Innovation Fund will award this year.

The grant proposals come from collaborations of more than 260 foundations, charities, universities, local governments, businesses, and private donors. The applicants are seeking the money as “intermediary” grant makers, which will, in turn, provide grants to nonprofit groups that have shown results in their work.

The corporation said that the applications hail from 25 states and the District of Columbia and are “well balanced” across the fund’s three issue areas: economic opportunity, youth development and school support, and healthy futures.

Over the coming weeks, more than 50 experts from the philanthropic, nonprofit, and government realms will review the applications. Seven to 10 awards of $1-million to $10-million are expected to be announced in July.

While the number of areas directly affected by the first year of grants will be small, the fund is laying a groundwork that will pay substantial dividends in the future, said Marta Urquilla, a senior adviser for social innovation at the corporation.

Said Ms. Urquilla: “As the competition for growth funding in the nonprofit sector based on results spreads and as new knowledge is generated about how to identify and scale innovative, effective approaches, the Social Innovation Fund has the potential to help transform millions of lives in hundreds of communities across the country.”