Blue Meridian Partners Grant

Blue Meridian Partners Grant aims to transform lives of young people and families in poverty by investing in scalable strategies that enhance economic and social mobility. The organization seeks stand-alone nonprofits with a proven track record, a compelling vision, and strong leadership. With a commitment to performance-based investing, Blue Meridian provides significant capital, often exceeding $100 million, to foster impactful solutions and address pressing social challenges effectively.

NOTE: If your organization meets our criteria and you believe your plans for growth might be a promising fit with Blue Meridian Partners, we encourage you to complete our brief Interest Survey (See Letter of Inquiry deadline above). The information you submit will be carefully reviewed, but we will contact only organizations that we determine are highly likely to achieve Blue Meridian’s grantmaking goals.
First, we identify successful strategies for addressing social problems confronting young people and families in poverty and help scale them.Second, we unlock significant capital by providing philanthropists a way to pool resources to support scaling – often investing $100 million or more in each strategy.
We believe our performance-based investing approach – combined with our model of capital aggregation – has the potential to change the funding paradigm for solving problems in the social sector.
Our Grantmaking
At Blue Meridian Partners, we make significant, performance-based investments in scaling up strategies poised to have a national impact on the lives young people and families in poverty.

Eligibility

We are eager to learn about your organization if it is:A stand-alone nonprofit with a history of service to young people and families in poverty in the U.S. Financially viable, with a budget greater than $1,000,000.Able to satisfy our six selection criteria.Compelling VisionThe strategy pursues solutions to important social problems that inhibit economic and social mobility among the affected populations or communities served by the organization. There is an ambitious vision for achieving scale, which is defined as significant reach, impact, and influence.Strong LeadershipA visionary, capable leader and leadership team, including the board, have the skills and experience to lead the organization through transformative growth. The organization has built or is actively building a leadership team that reflects the communities it serves in terms of race and/or lived experience.Track Record of PerformanceThere is a history of strong performance, with indicators of potential success in scaling efforts at a level that is meaningful within the context of the population(s) the organization serves. The organization has demonstrated capabilities needed to advance its theory of change and is prepared to build capabilities essential to its long term health.Evidence of EffectivenessThere is a combination of baseline external evidence (including underlying evidence supporting the theory of change), a commitment to future evaluation that meets rigorous, yet practical, standards, and a performance management culture of learning and continuous improvement. This evidence, when viewed holistically and disaggregated by race, shows potential for meaningful outcomes at scale.Pathway to ScaleThere are clear pathways or channels to achieve scale (defined as reach, impact, or influence) and enable meaningful market penetration in the U.S. (or the respective region). Indicators suggest that the organization can leverage this channel.Sustainable Economic ModelThere is a reasonable hypothesis that significant philanthropic growth capital can catalyze scale and lead to one of two outcomes: either renewable and reliable revenue sources will cover ongoing operational costs or an organization’s work will no longer be necessary (e.g., as a result of fundamental system change).