We embolden donors to think big and increase their philanthropic impact. We believe that solving big problems requires ambition, urgency, scale, and significant resources.

Using an inclusive, equitable model and due diligence process, Lever for Change creates customized challenges and other tailored funding opportunities for donors. Top-ranked teams and challenge finalists become members of our Bold Solutions Network — a growing global network that helps secure additional funding, amplify members’ impact, and accelerate social change.

Lever for Change was founded as a nonprofit affiliate of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation in 2019. Our organization was born of the success of MacArthur’s 100&Change Challenge, which awarded its first $100 million grant in 2017, spurring the philanthropic sector to rethink its approach to achieving impact at scale.

So far, Lever for Change has influenced over $2.2 billion in grants and provided support to more than 175 organizations.

Mission:

Lever for Change connects donors with problem solvers to find and fund bold, effective solutions to accelerate social change.

Vision:

We envision a world where people with inspiring ideas have the resources they need to tackle the world’s biggest problems.

Our Values:

Lever for Change’s model was designed to remove some of the barriers that lead to inequity in philanthropy. We encourage donors to broaden access to funding by shifting away from an invitation-only approach to an open-call model to source potential problem solvers.

We share our ambition and knowledge with the philanthropic and nonprofit sectors, yet we recognize our place in a complex ecosystem where the experts on a given issue are the people who know it best: those who experience its consequences first-hand.

We center our work on the core values of openness, transparency, equity, and inclusion. We take intentional steps to ensure these values are represented throughout the services we provide and in each of our challenges.