Fund aims to raise $50 million for strategic investments in racial equity focused work

New York, August 12, 2020 – To support the current historic movement toward racial justice, Echoing Green, a global nonprofit organization that finds, supports, and connects emerging social entrepreneurs, announced today the commitment to raise $50 million for a new Racial Equity Philanthropic Fund. The fund aims to enable Echoing Green to transform the field of social innovation over the next three years and ensure that today’s heightened awareness of racial inequity translates into sustained action and impact.

“Racial inequity is a structural problem that denies disruptive leaders the power to drive change,” said Cheryl L. Dorsey, president of Echoing Green. “At Echoing Green, we know that sustained traction in social change requires an intentional, explicit and long-term focus on addressing racial disparities. Our new Fund will give us the opportunity to invest in leaders, thought leadership, convening events and publications, allowing us to ask questions, uncover systemic issues and pilot change within the social innovation space.”

The Racial Equity Philanthropic Fund will support the following goals:

• Launch and scale 500 social enterprises focused on racial equity in the U.S. and globally. In addition to launching new leaders, Echoing Green will invest follow up funding in its portfolio’s most high-impact enterprises to help founders scale their solutions.
• Build onramps to social innovation for 5,000 leaders focused on racial equity. Echoing Green will provide social innovation programming and learning opportunities to communities that have historically not had access to the tools or capital required to build and scale.
• Create opportunities for engagement in the movement for racial equity for 10,000 corporate employees. Leveraging existing employee engagement programing, Echoing Green will engage partner institutions in both shorter, time-bound and longer, in-depth opportunities to contribute to the movement.

For more than 30 years, Echoing Green has worked at the intersection of social justice and social innovation, supporting proximate social entrepreneurs to create a just, equitable, and inclusive society. With the support of funders including Amgen Foundation, Goldman Sachs, Jerome L. Greene Foundation, and Miranda Family Fund, Echoing Green is making this bold, strategic investment in its racial equity initiatives at the breadth and scale that this work requires. This programming is bolstered by a generous gift from MacKenzie Scott made to Echoing Green in July 2020. Her financial support of Echoing Green was amongst a transformational set of donations made by Ms. Scott this year, totaling more than $1.7 billion to 116 nonprofits.

“Amgen Foundation is proud to support this crucial long-term work by Echoing Green to advance racial equity and the social impact sector’s role in rebuilding and reimagining thriving communities,” said Eduardo Cetlin, president of the Amgen Foundation.

Prospective donors to the fund can visit echoinggreen.org/news/racial-equity-philanthropic-fund or email Janna Oberdorf, vice president of external affairs.

About Echoing Green: For more than 30 years, Echoing Green has been on the front lines of solving the world’s biggest problems, raising up the transformational leaders willing to speak truth to power and challenge the status quo. The organization finds emerging leaders with the best ideas for social innovation as early as possible and sets them on a path to lifelong impact. Echoing Green’s community of nearly 1,000 social innovators includes past Fellows like First Lady Michelle Obama, the founders of organizations like Teach For America and One Acre Fund, and public figures like Van Jones. Built and refined over three decades, Echoing Green discovers tomorrow’s leaders, today, and then funds, connects, and supports a new generation of social impact leaders.

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Media Contact
Cara Lee
cara@echoinggreen.com