Rocket launching upward and to the rightThe ImpactFool (IF) Fund

How We Work

We apply a venture capital approach to find, fund, and support early-stage nonprofits that hold great promise for impact at scale.

How We Do It

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Find

We identify "diamonds in the rough," with the potential for "hockey stick" growth. This means young but established nonprofits, with innovative models, positioned for large-scale impact.

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Fund

We provide these exceptional organizations with $300,000 in unrestricted funding, delivered as $100,000 annually, during each of the three years of our formal engagement.

This funding is intended to help organizations that are navigating the transition from successful startups to established changemakers.

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Support

We provide each organization with an IF Scaling Partner: a member of our team that has deep expertise in nonprofit management and social impact. The IF Scaling Partner gets hands-on, working with the nonprofit's leadership to meet identified needs with expertise from The Motley Fool staff and members, and outside experts.

What We Look For in an ImpactFool Nonprofit

An early-stage nonprofit, probably founder-led (but not necessarily).
Great potential for large-scale impact.
Focused on helping individuals, who live paycheck to paycheck, take their next step toward Financial Freedom.
Deploys an innovative approach to addressing systemic challenges.

Our Selection Criteria

We aim to select organizations that generally have the following qualities. We consider many great organizations in our confidential search process, and evaluate each one independently.

The Organization

US-based 501c3 nonprofits that can provide:

  • Their most recent 990
  • Proof of exempt status
  • Their last two years of audited financials

Deliver programs that:

  • Serve Americans living paycheck to paycheck.
  • Advance one or more of the following: (a) the capacity to save, (b) financial knowledge and confidence, (c) strengthened financial resilience.

Has 1-10 years of operating history with:

  • A sustainable operating budget of over $1M.
  • A clearly-proven product-market fit for their core service.
  • An articulated model for measuring impact.

Built on an innovative idea, which:

  • Improves upon an existing service model
  • Introduces an existing model into a new context
  • Challenges assumptions and tests out new approaches

Has a scalable business model with the potential to:

  • Expand existing offerings and/or grow to new geographies
  • Syndicate their model to other organizations.
  • Offer a platform that efficiently serves many people in multiple geographies.

The Nonprofit's Leader

Led by experts on their issue who are close to the community they serve, and:

  • Have a deep conviction and passion for the issue they committed to addressing.
  • Are aligned with the Fool values of collaboration, innovation, competitiveness, and honesty.

Help us back the next one.

The IF Fund is powered by Fool Community members who believe in accelerating financial freedom. Your support helps us find, fund, and support the nonprofits doing the work.

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