GreenLight Fund: Expression of Interest Form

Welcome

Welcome, and thank you for your interest in exploring partnership with GreenLight Fund.

This form should take approximately 15 minutes to complete. We are currently piloting this Expression of Interest Form through July 17, 2026, as part of our efforts to strengthen how organizations engage with GreenLight Fund. Submitting an Expression of Interest Form communicates you are interested in being considered for GreenLight Fund’s pipeline and gives us some foundational information about your organization. It does not mean you are submitting an application. Following the submission of this form a GreenLight Fund staff member will review your information. Organizations that align with our approach can expect to hear from a GreenLight Fund team member via email so we can better assess alignment with current and future selection cycles.


About GreenLight Fund

We are a national nonprofit with a local focus that partners with communities to create opportunities for inclusive prosperity.
We facilitate locally driven change to improve outcomes and remove barriers individuals and families face that are all too often rooted in racial inequities.


Each year, in each of our 15 soon to be 17 GreenLight sites, we facilitate a community-driven process focusing on identifying one, critical, unmet community need, and begin to take specific action against that to build momentum so individuals and communities move forward towards their goals.


The GreenLight Method

We facilitate a proven, community-driven annual process across all sites to address the needs of local residents facing entrenched barriers to inclusive prosperity.

The GreenLight Method is organized around five key steps that come to life differently based on local needs and contexts:

  • Discover: Through conversations across multiple sectors, local data reports and listening to many voices, the local site team and the Selection Advisory Committee (SAC) look deeply at issue areas driven by racial and economic disparities in the region and elevate community needs not yet being fully addressed.
  • Scout: The team searches the country and deeply vets proven programs best suited to tackle those needs locally.
  • Select: In partnership with the SAC, an innovative program with significant, measurable results and the best local fit is selected.
  • Invest: GreenLight helps the selected organization reach and sustain impact locally with multi-year unrestricted funding, on-the-ground support and strategic partnership development.
  • Measure: At the outset with each portfolio organization, GreenLight identifies and documents the programmatic and financial indicators to be measured, sets goals and reports on those measures annually.

Our Selection & Partnership Process

We scale innovative, high-impact models into new communities to break down barriers to inclusive prosperity. Our investments address a variety of focus areas as prioritized by each community annually and, through partnerships and strategic support, create economic mobility opportunities and accelerate change. Our process is designed to identify solutions that are ready to scale and succeed locally, and to support them through a multi-year partnership.



From first contact to partnership — here's what the journey looks like.

  1. Interest & Exploration: We’re always exploring and on the look out for innovative and impactful organizations that are ready to scale their work with new communities.
  2. Pipeline Qualification: Our team reviews Interest Forms to ensure eligibility for GreenLight partnership. Qualified organizations may be invited to participate in an introductory phone call.
  3. Diligence & Alignment: Based on our review of your interest form and early conversations, organizations may be invited to submit additional information and engage with our teams in further discussions so we can better understand your work and alignment with current and future selection cycles.
  4. Community Driven Selection: Finalist organizations may be invited to present at a Selection Advisory Council meeting and engage directly with the local community.
  5. Partnership & Investment: Each year, GreenLight selects one organization in each site to launch in a new community. Selected organizations agree on and execute a GreenLight engagement agreement that details the terms of the partnership and investment.
    • Organizations selected for GreenLight Fund’s Portfolio receive up to $600,000 of unrestricted funding over four (4) years
    • Active engagement with GreenLight’s “Beyond the Check” Support model

Beyond the Check Support

GreenLight Fund’s year-long community-driven process is the first step towards ensuring that organizations GreenLight invests in are pulled into the community, have local champions (Local Advisory Board members and early partners), and a trusted partner in GreenLight for on-going relationship building and strategic support.


GreenLight site teams have the support of a national network, including GreenLight’s national staff and infrastructure, and learnings from other site leaders as they partner locally.


In addition to financial capital up to $600k in unrestricted funding over four (4) years, GreenLight Fund acts as a catalyst; engaging with and supporting our portfolio organization investments as a deeply committed and collaborative partner, working together to ensure organizations are positioned to reach measurable change. Our ongoing, on-the-ground strategic support includes:

  • coaching local leaders,
  • providing thought partnership on strategy, staffing and overcoming challenges, and
  • leveraging our local leader’s social capital and GreenLight’s credibility to open doors that facilitate partnership development and connect organizations to additional funding sources.

This significant aspect of GreenLight’s work, during our multi-year funding and beyond, demonstrates a deep commitment and ensures mutual accountability: reaching stated outcomes, maximizing impact and prioritizing long term sustainability.

Eligibility Criteria

Partnering with GreenLight Fund

Founded in Boston in 2004, our national network of sites partner with local communities to tackle the barriers that prevent individuals and families from achieving inclusive prosperity. We select and scale proven programs to directly address those barriers prioritized by each community.

How We Work: Addressing persistent challenges by scaling what works

We use a community-driven approach to tackle economic and racial inequities, remove barriers, create new opportunities and improve economic mobility outcomes.


Eligibility Criteria

Organizations interested in a potential partnership with GreenLight Fund must meet the following eligibility criteria:

  1. Operate in and focus on supporting cities in the United States (and its territories).
  2. Nonprofit Status: The organization must be a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit.
    • GreenLight does not invest in for-profit organizations or B-corps
  3. Alignment: The organization’s efforts must address economic and racial inequities, remove barriers, create new opportunities and improve economic mobility outcomes.
    • Based on our 20 years of experience, we’ve found that efforts aligned with the following focus areas can have an outsized impact:
      • Community Safety
      • Digital Inclusion
      • Economic Empowerment
      • Education
      • Foster Youth
      • Health and Wellbeing
      • Housing
      • Social-Emotional Learning
      • Workforce Development
      • Other
  4. Service Provider: Eligible organizations (or individual programs) must provide direct and/or indirect services, which can include tech-enabled, affiliate, or "train the trainer" models
    • GreenLight does not invest in organizations that are primarily dedicated to advocacy, policy, and/or research.
  5. New to the Community: The organization must not already have an established presence in the specific GreenLight city. We partner with organizations to bring their solutions to “new-to-you” communities.
    • However, this requirement does not exclude existing pilot programs, organizations that are currently in the process of expanding, or organizations that may have had a presence in the past.
    • If you currently operate in a GreenLight city, you are eligible to explore partnering with GreenLight in other cities where you do not currently operate.

Expression of Interest Form


Eligibility & Acknowledgement




The organization’s efforts must address economic and racial inequities, remove barriers, create new opportunities and improve economic mobility outcomes. Based on our 20 years of experience, we’ve found that efforts aligned with the focus areas listed can have an outsized impact.

Max 80 characters

Eligible organizations (or individual programs) must provide direct and/or indirect services, which can include tech-enabled, affiliate, or "train the trainer" models.
Primary Contact Information





Organization Overview



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Please provide links where we can find the current composition of your leadership team and board of directors.









Geography & Operations

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Financial Information
Please provide links to or upload your two most recent Form 990s.



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Expansion Readiness & Strategy


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Evidence of Impact

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Provide a link to the annual report, impact report, or other pre-existing document that articulates your impact over your two most recently completed program years.




Max file size: 5 MB

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Provide a link to or upload any additional reports documenting your evidence of impact. Third party assessments, reports, or evaluations are all welcome.

Max file size: 5 MB

Max file size: 5 MB