Announcing Our First ImpactFool Nonprofits!
By Kristi Waterworth – Published October 29, 2024
Everywhere you look, people are struggling. Between expensive everyday needs resulting from years of rapid inflation and historically high housing costs, working people are having a hard time making ends meet. It’s no surprise that 2 out of 3 Americans live paycheck to paycheck today.
Across the U.S., nonprofit organizations are developing innovative solutions for helping working families reduce debt, avoid economic crises, build wealth and plan for their financial futures. That’s why this June we launched the ImpactFool (IF)* Fund: The Motley Fool Foundation’s accelerator of the most promising pathways to Financial Freedom. The IF Fund utilizes a venture capital approach to find early-stage nonprofits with great potential for impact at scale, and provides select organizations with multi-year funding, guidance and expertise to help them grow further and faster.
In our first search this summer, we met nearly 90 impressive DC area nonprofit organizations. Through an in-depth search process including nominations, written applications, video “pitches,” and lengthy interviews, we were inspired and humbled by their work and impact.
Today, we’re pleased to announce that we’ve selected our first two ImpactFool Nonprofits.
NeighborShare provides critical funding to households with needs of $400 or less: needs that would otherwise go unmet and have the potential to send families into a financial tailspin. They partner with locally-based case workers, social workers, and nonprofit staff to source and verify real household needs, and present them on their platform to attract contributions from people in their community. NeighborShare backstops the amount raised with financial support from institutional partners, ensuring that each validated need is met quickly with minimal red tape. Since 2021, NeighborShare has delivered more than $1 million to 10,500 neighbors in 27 states. Visit Our ImpactFool Nonprofits page to learn more.
Debt-related legal issues can create life-altering problems for anyone who experiences them. Tzedek DC provides free legal assistance and financial counseling for D.C. residents with low and moderate incomes, frequently winning cases outright or settling on affordable terms. Tzedek DC saves clients an average of $2,577 per full representation case, while also fighting for systemic change like erasing millions in medical debt for D.C. residents. Visit Our ImpactFool Nonprofit page to learn more.
Up Next: Three Years of Support and Growth
In addition to the $600,000 in grant funding deployed between these two organizations, our team, and third-party experts will be working hands-on with both organizations to help dramatically scale their reach and capacity.
We’re also preparing for our next search for ImpactFool Nonprofits. Look for more details to come, along with additional insights into the progress Tzedek DC and NeighborShare are making.
Thank You!
We appreciate your enthusiasm for helping Americans take their next step toward Financial Freedom, and invite you to stay connected to everything The Motley Fool Foundation is doing.
*The ImpactFool Fund is not a traditional investment fund; rather, it is a Venture Philanthropy Fund where donations from our community are awarded to other nonprofits by The Motley Fool Foundation.