Echoing Green launches $15.6 million fund for social innovators, including Black founders

In an effort to assist advance often ignored Black social innovators, Echoing Green is launching a $15.6 million fund to offer capital to them.

A tool called the Signal Fund provides funding for social innovators at critical stages of growth, According to press release. The money infusion will largely goal and prioritize founders who’ve missed the potential for scalable social impact.

Despite being amongst probably the most influential forces driving social change, it has been revealed that leaders of color are most impacted by underfunding. A social innovator is a one who uses entrepreneurial methods to offer solutions to social problems and improve the well-being of the world.

For example, tests of Echoing Green and The Bridgespan Group revealed that Black-led organizations had 24% less revenue than their white counterparts. The data also showed that donations to Black-led businesses were 76% lower than those made by their white-led peers.

Next, this test found parallel disparities for startups led by underrepresented founders, including women, who received just 43% of funding in comparison with white male founders.

“In the current economic climate, fundraising for entrepreneurs is becoming increasingly difficult,” Echoing Green President Cheryl L. Dorsey said in a press release. “Through the Signal Fund, we are empowering and de-risking a new pipeline of social innovators – ones we believe will expand the ranks of leaders who are too often overlooked by mainstream philanthropy and financial institutions.”

She added: “This fund can help proven social innovators navigate the proverbial valley of death that so many startups face by achieving organizational milestones recognizable to traditional investors without compromising impact.”

Echoing Green is a nonprofit organization that gives seed funding to organizations. As a part of the two-year pilot, the Signal Fund plans to make 20 investments in Echoing Green Fellowship beneficiaries and supply them with catalytic capital starting from $100,000 to $500,000 over that period.

It was revealed that the fund paid out $3.6 million to 12 social innovators. As a result, recipients have already utilized a further $18 million in funds for their organizations.

The Echoing Green Fellowship reports supporting nearly 1,000 innovators over the past 36 years, including distinguished leaders akin to First Lady Michele Obama, 2024 TIME100 honoree Kennedy Odede, and the founders of Teach for America and the One Acre Fund.

Check Here for more information concerning the fund.