A Boston-based, national nonprofit that partners with communities to solve local issues in areas such as food security, literacy and poverty has raised new capital.
The GreenLight Fund announced the close of its American New Cities Fund II, a $15 million fundraise supported by more than 50 national philanthropic investors, including Mackenzie Scott and husband Dan Jewett, Bain Capital and the NFL. The funds will be used to support the nonprofit’s national offices.
GreenLight takes a unique approach to solving community-identified needs. Each year, the nonprofit sets up a council of local leaders in every city in which it operates to identify a specific unmet need in a community. Then GreenLight finds a program with a successful track record in this area and helps it launch in this new city. GreenLight provides multi-year startup capital and mentorship to launch the program and tracks its progress.
John Simon co-founded the nonprofit with CEO Margaret Hall in Boston 17 years ago. As an entrepreneur and venture capitalist, Simon had seen successful ideas spread like wildfire in the private sector. But in the nonprofit world, he didn’t see that same pattern.
“World-changing nonprofits that have found ways to change results on a specific issue, oftentimes over years and years and years, they may only get to six cities or seven cities or eight cities,” Simon said. “Because there’s not the same market forces at work.”
GreenLight says its methods have been successful in scaling nonprofits across the U.S. The organization has sites in 11 cities nationwide, including Baltimore, San Francisco and Kansas City. Simon said there is a 15-city waitlist, and they plan to establish a presence in Chicago and Denver next.
“There’s so much need and there’s so much opportunity and this is such a proven, explosively good model in terms of its scale and impact and measurability,” Simon said.
Simon said the nonprofit’s early work in cities like Boston gave its a proven track record to expand to new cities and attract funding. For example, more than a decade ago GreenLight looked at the challenges impacting youth aging out of foster care in Boston. Simon said a task force at the time found that most young people had negative outcomes, like unemployment, homelessness and incarceration.
The GreenLight team started looking nationally for a solution. They found Youth Villages, a nonprofit based in Memphis, Tennessee. Its YVLifeSet program worked 24/7 with its young clients on access to housing, education and life skills training. GreenLight paid the startup costs to bring this program to Boston, Simon said, and now YVLifeSet has worked with hundreds of young people.
“It’s not a risky startup because we know it’s been successful in six other places. It’s desperately needed here. It’s got to be successful,” Simon said. “And as they grow and scale, they deliver more and more impact, broader and broader.”
These new funds will be used to support the national GreenLight team — what Simon called the organization’s “central nervous system.” This group was built about four years ago following a $6 million raise, Simon said. The team was initially four or five people and has grown to between 10 and 15 staff members.
Simon said this team manages grants, finances, communications and IT nationally, but also provides support services to teams in each city. The national team also reviews potential nonprofits to help match them to in-need cities. While the city teams raise funds for their own programs, Simon said, the national team also supports these efforts.
GreenLight also announced partnerships with several sponsors, including Bank of America, Bain Capital, Deloitte, Goldman Sachs Gives, iHeartMedia and the NFL. Simon said these organizations are also providing their resources and connections in different communities. For example, iHeartMedia may provide free media to announce a new GreenLight program.
“People are buying into (Greenlight's vision), not just contributing money, (but putting in) some elbow grease and a shoulder at the wheel to basically make everything a little bit better in every city that we’re in,” Simon said.
