The Social Innovation Fund will increase public and private investment in the replication and expansion of these solutions to more communities. Specifically, it will create a network of social innovation funds around the country to grow and replicate innovative, promising community organizations with strong evidence, organizational effectiveness, and impact potential.

The Corporation will award grants in the amount of $1 million to $10 million per year for up to five years on a competitive basis to intermediary grantmaking organizations. Grants must be matched dollar-for-dollar in cash. Community organizations will receive financial support from intermediaries on the order of no less than $100,000 per year for 3-5 years, as well as strategic guidance to help them evaluate and multiply their impact. Community organizations must also provide a 1:1 cash match for the total amount—federal and private dollars—they receive from the intermediaries.

The Corporation intends to post a draft Notice of Funding Opportunity for public comment in mid-December, 2009. We expect to announce the selected grantmaking institutions in the summer of 2010.

The Social Innovation Fund was authorized for $50 million dollars, but funding is contingent upon congressional approval of the Fiscal Year (FY) 2010 budget. The budget has not yet been approved, and a Continuing Resolution has been passed. The Corporation will hold a grant competition as scheduled, but will not award funds until Congress passes a budget that indicates funding for the Social Innovation Fund.

Housed at the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS), the Social Innovation Fund will help solve some of our nation’s most difficult social challenges. The Social Innovation Fund (SIF) will work with the grantmaking community to fund promising nonprofits that have demonstrated outcomes. It will provide nonprofits with growth funding and other support to scale and spread their impact.

• White House Blog: Innovation With Crawfish Sauce: What a New Orleans Nonprofit Can Teach the Rest of the Country, by Melody Barnes, Director of the White House Domestic Policy Council (10/30/2009)
• Social Innovation Fund Status Update Briefing Call (MP3 Audio - 10/15/2009)
      
  The Corporation for National and Community Service hosted a national briefing call on October 15, 2009 to provide an update on the status of the Social Innovation Fund and answer questions from the field.  The call was led by the following representatives of CNCS: Nicky Goren, Acting CEO; Bob Grimm, Director of Research and Policy Development and Senior Advisor to the CEO; and Marta Urquilla, Senior Advisor for Social Innovation.  It was attended by over 650 representatives of public, private, and nonprofit organizations.
• White House Blog: Replicating Success, by Nicola Goren, Acting CEO of the Corporation for National and Community Service (10/8/2009)
• Social Innovation to Address Critical National Challenges Video (YouTube - 7/24/2009)
      
  From the 2009 National Conference on Volunteering and Service, this forum presented innovative strategies that solved public problems and considered how citizens can be engaged as partners with government. Building on this presentation, government officials and social innovators explored models of social innovation that have changed lives and the conditions that support social innovations.
      
  Speakers included: Michele Jolin, Senior Advisor for Social Innovation, Domestic Policy Council, The White House; Steve Goldsmith, Acting Chair, Corporation for National and Community Service; Shannon Schuyler, US Managing Director of Corporate Responsibility, Price Waterhouse Coopers; Cheryl Dorsey, President, Echoing Green; Sarah Di Troia, Partner, New Profit Inc.; Ian Hardman, President, Management Leadership for Tomorrow (MLT).
• Remarks of First Lady Michelle Obama at Time 100 Most Influential People Awards (5/5/2009)
• Remarks of President Obama on Community Solutions Agenda (6/30/2009)