In 2021, Lever for Change introduced the Swift Grants fund, to provide small grants to Bold Solutions Network members for collaborative projects. This fund provided an outlet for the world’s top problem solvers to leverage expertise and join forces to find creative solutions in their fields.
This year, we received proposals for innovative, collaborative projects addressing wildlife conservation, caregiver rights, climate change, Indigenous entrepreneurship support, and more. In total, we have selected six projects for funding.
Congratulations to the 2022 Swift Grants Awardees!
- Bard College & University of Waterloo: For the second year, Bard College and the University of Waterloo have been awarded a Swift Grant to expand their online Worldwide Teach-In on Climate and Justice in March 2023 to engage students and teachers from all disciplines in underserved countries in Africa. The project aims to reach more than 250,000 students from over 70 countries globally to learn about climate change, solutions, and climate justice.
- IGNITE & Caring Across Generations: Using the expertise of Caring Across Generations, these two organizations will create systems, structures, and supportive culture for IGNITE’s staff and program participants who are caregivers. The team will also use storytelling to highlight the challenges of working while being a caregiver with the intention of influencing policy and best practices in the nonprofit sector.
- National Marine Mammal Foundation & World Wildlife Fund: These two world-class wildlife conservation organizations will partner to increase veterinary capacity to save the endangered Indus River dolphins rescued from irrigation canals in Pakistan. The team hopes this model will be able to be replicated to save more marine mammal species.
- Native Women Lead & New Mexico Community Capital: These two organizations will engage Indigenous film and media creators to launch a storytelling campaign to reframe entrepreneurship in Native American communities and uplift the innovation of Native American matriarchs. This campaign will support the team’s The Future is Indigenous Women initiative.
- OneSky & IDinsight: This team will design, pilot, and test a mobile business management application to support home-based early childcare providers for vulnerable children in Vietnam. The app intends to track, streamline, and improve childcare providers’ financial management, child attendance, and data used to improve programming.
- Power for All & University of Waterloo: These two organizations will drive awareness of the Distributed Renewable Energy sector’s potential as a jobs engine through an advocacy campaign and student mentorship. The campaign will target students and emerging professionals in 44 African and Asian countries.
Over the next year, each team will use their $25,000 Swift Grants to implement their respective projects. The teams will share their lessons learned and progress at the end of their grant periods, so stay tuned – sign up for our newsletter to get the latest updates.
We look forward to seeing the big impact of these small projects.