We are excited to announce our next Lightning Grant Round, which will be focused on tech nonprofits and led by SV2 Partner Dan Barritt and staff member Ashley Clark. We’ll learn about a strong slate of nonprofit organizations that are leveraging technology to address complex social challenges in our community and our nation. The organizations we’ll review are building platforms or programs that:
- help community members more efficiently access social services
- enable sexual assault victims to easily document and report their assault
- teach young students from underrepresented backgrounds how to code while helping them develop leadership and entrepreneurial skills
- and more…
What is a Lightning Grant Round?
Lightning Grant Rounds are a shortened grantmaking experience, taking place over four to six weeks with only two in-person meetings. For the Lightning Rounds, SV2 collaborates with funder allies who nominate organizations from their own portfolios and share their diligence materials with us. Working with funder allies relieves the burden for nonprofit applicants and allows SV2 Partners to learn how our funder allies approach their work. For this Round, we’re delighted to work with Google.org and Fast Forward, a tech nonprofit accelerator.
During Lightning Rounds, participating Partners have the opportunity to research six organizations in the sector, learn from funder allies about these organizations, hear presentations from the leaders of three finalist organizations, and collectively select a single Grantee. Lightning Round Grantees receive a one-year general operating support grant of up to $30,000, and participating Partners get to engage in a fantastic hands-on learning experience.
This sounds amazing! Tell me how to sign up…
In-person meetings for this spring’s Tech Nonprofits Lightning Grant Round will be in the evenings on Thursday, March 15 and Thursday, March 29 from 6:30 – 9:00pm at SV2. The Round will kick-off in late February, before the first meeting, with diligence pre-work, which includes reading and optional conference calls with our funder allies.
What’s the deadline?
Because of the pre-work, we ask that you RSVP for this Round as soon as possible but no later than Friday, February 23 by emailing Ashley Clark.