Social Innovation Fund Resource Center 

The Social Innovation Fund (SIF) is an ambitious experiment in how government, philanthropy, and the nonprofit sector can better work together to scale innovative, results-oriented community solutions to address some of our nation’s most intractable social problems.

Authorized by the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act and housed at the Corporation for National and Community Service, the $50- million SIF will make grants of $1 million to $10 million to approved grantmaking institutions. These grantees will then make subgrants of at least $100,000, each lasting three to five years, to nonprofit community organizations. SIF will also require dollar-for-dollar matching funds both from the grantmaker and the recipient nonprofit organization. More information about the SIF can be found at the Corporation for National and Community Service website or in the SIF Frequently Asked Questions document (PDF).

We believe SIF (working in partnership with the White House Office of Social Innovation) can have dramatic impact in several important ways: providing resources to promising organizations so they can build their evidence and strengthen their capacity for scaling; supporting the development of intermediaries that can bring these resources to bear on behalf of nonprofits; connecting proven nonprofits to federal government agencies that could support their expansion; creating a learning community of grantmakers committed to building organizational capacity and scaling what works; and inspiring legions of additional innovation funds at the federal, state, and local levels. 

The resources below offer the latest news related to SIF, as well as useful links to organizations, frameworks, and knowledge that could help grantmakers and nonprofits prepare to be SIF-ready.