Social Innovation Fund Grants: One Applicant Discusses Its Proposal

In announcing the new director of the Social Innovation Fund, Paul L. Carttar, the Corporation for National and Community Service said that more than 200 groups had indicated they planned to apply for the $50-million in grants that the fund will award this year.

But officials declined to say who, or specifically what kind of groups, had sent the letters.

One applicant, however, has fessed up: New Profit, a charity in Cambridge, Mass., that specializes in providing money to promising nonprofit groups, kind of like the Social Innovation Fund itself. New Profit also happens to be Mr. Carttar’s former employer (though he will recuse himself from any discussions of the organization during the grant-awards process).

Kim Syman, a managing partner at New Profit, says the group is applying for a social-innovation grant in the area of youth development. Like other applicants, New Profit is seeking the money as an “intermediary” grant maker that, in turn, would provide grants to nonprofit groups.

“We’ve been doing the kind of work that is called for by the SIF for a long time,” Ms. Syman says. “We feel really committed to be part of trying to demonstrate what this kind of fund can do.”

She says New Profit, which has never applied for government money before, would raise new money, as well as provide some that it has on hand, to meet the requirement that it match the federal dollars.

As might be expected, Ms. Syman has high praise for Mr. Carttar’s appointment, saying his experience as a member of New Profit’s senior management team gave him good insight into the ways “communities can identify and access innovation.”

Given his background, which also includes government work, “we could hardly think of people in the nation who understand this and have been more out in front on this than Paul,” she says.