The Social Innovation Fund is excited to announce the applicants to the 2012 grant competition. We received 31 applications, of which 25 were compliant and moved on to the full competition.

This strong group of 25 compliant applications came from 19 different U.S. states and territories, 13 of which are not currently represented in the Social Innovation Fund portfolio of grantees. Four of the 25 applicants have applied for Social Innovation Fund grants in previous competitions.

Applications are now moving through a rigorous, multi-staged review process during which they are assessed by reviewers from outside the Corporation for National and Community Service based on the Program Design, Organizational Capability, and Cost Effectiveness and Budget Adequacy criteria of the Notice of Funds Availability.

CNCS staff also conduct a review of applications to assess the same sections while particularly focusing on applicants' strength of relationships and collaborations, opportunity for scale, potential to impact public discussion, and rigor and sophistication of evidence and evaluation.

In this competition, we expect to award $10-15 million to up to six new “intermediary” grantees. Each award will range from $1-5 million per year and will be renewable for up to five years. Selected grantees will then match the funds 1:1 and make subgrants to promising nonprofit organizations in local communities.

Award announcements are expected by early August. For more information on the impressive organizations that applied for Social Innovation Fund grants this year, please view the 2012 Social Innovation Fund Applicant Fact Sheet.

About the Social Innovation Fund

The Social Innovation Fund is an initiative of CNCS intended to improve the lives of people in low-income communities. It does so by mobilizing public and private resources to grow promising, innovative community-based solutions that have evidence of compelling impact in three areas of priority need: economic opportunity, healthy futures, and youth development. Read stories of impact about the Social Innovation Fund on the Serve.gov blog.