Learn if your enterprise is a match for the Growth Portfolio

Each year, we reassess and update the priorities for our selection process, informed by the composition of our current portfolio and our strategic funding needs. 

Since its founding, REDF has worked with ESEs to provide basic and foundational skill building for the individuals facing the highest barriers to employment. This will continue to be a need and priority for REDF. However, we now know we need to do more to help people attain quality jobs and drive upward mobility.  

In an effort to deepen our learning in this area, our 2025 portfolio will be focused on employment social enterprises that have an upskilling focus.  

See below for more information and the full list of eligibility criteria for the incoming 2025 cohort (2024 application cycle). We encourage you to fully review each criteria to determine whether or not you are eligible to apply.

Foundational Eligibility

REDF requires that every organization in the Growth Portfolio meet all the foundational priorities listed below. “ESE workers” refer to individuals from one or more of REDF’s focus populations that are employed by the ESE to produce a revenue-generating product/service.

Capacity to Participate 

  • No ongoing or anticipated impact measurement evaluation(s) that would limit the ability to make programmatic changes over the next year.
  • Willing and able to commit fully to REDF partnership, including meeting regularly with your relationship manager (1-2 hours/month) , engaging in learning discussions with REDF/peers (5-10 hours/quarter),completing baseline assessments (~10 hours) within the first two months of the Growth Portfolio program (Jan and Feb 2025) and submitting financial data on a quarterly basis as well as anonymized participant data that includes demographics and information about individual barriers on a semi-annual basis (see Experience section here).

Legal Status

  • Nonprofit or for-profit community organization, including certified benefit corporations, legally able to operate in the United States.
  • No pending merger with another organization which would directly impact the social enterprise’s operations.

Relationship to REDF 

  • REDF Community Member that is not a 2021-2025 Growth Portfolio Grantee or a 2025 Accelerator participant.

Note: Venture Philanthropy Program (VPP) grantees are eligible to apply. Organizations that have participated in Accelerator are eligible to apply even if the Accelerator fellow has departed.

Business & Program

  • Operates a revenue-generating social enterprise to produce a product/service for which the social enterprise is paid.
  • Social enterprise business has been fully operational for 12 months by the time of this application. Business is not in a pilot and has regular and repeatable operations, an established revenue model and a customer base.
  • Have at least $100K in earned revenue, and at least $400K in total revenue for 2023. If the fiscal year has not ended, applicants can use reasonable projected revenue for the months of September through December. Earned revenue is revenue earned from social enterprise business sales (the business that employs individuals with barriers). The $100k in earned revenue must come from one business line. Total revenue includes revenue earned from social enterprise business sales as well as contributed or philanthropic revenue. We accept total revenue for either the social enterprise, and/or the Parent Agency, if the Parent Agency is providing financial and operational support to the social enterprise.
  • Designed to employ and support individuals from one or more of REDF’s focus populations to produce the product/service. REDF’s focus populations include individuals with low incomes striving to break through multiple barriers to employment: justice system involvement, homelessness/housing instability, opportunity youth or emerging adults between the ages of 16-24 that are disconnected from school and work, substance use issues, mental health challenges, refugee/asylee, and experiences of domestic abuse and/or trafficking.
  • Pays hourly wages (or the equivalent via a stipend) that meet or exceed local minimum wage standards.
  • Provides supportive services, training, and/or programming to help its employees and/or participants break through barriers to work and the core set of services (i.e., “program”) has been in operation for at least 12 months by the time of this application.

Upskilling & Quality Jobs Focus

  • Has a structured, intentional focus on upskilling and creating pathways into quality jobs for 50% or more of ESE workers.

Businesses in the Growth Portfolio also meet at least one of the following strategic priorities: 

In addition to the foundational eligibility criteria, REDF also requires that every organization in the Growth Portfolio meet one or more of the strategic priorities, listed below. Applications will be awarded additional points in our scoring process based on each strategic priority they meet. In cases where applications are equally strong, preference is given to organizations that meet multiple strategic priorities and particularly to those applicants that can share measurable outcomes data.

“ESE workers” refer to individuals from one or more of REDF’s focus populations that are employed by the ESE to produce a revenue-generating product/service.

  1. Equips ESE workers for careers in the Green Jobs sector.
  2. Has outcomes data to demonstrate success in employing/placing ESE workers in quality jobs that result in promotion, advancement, and higher wages (e.g., placement data, retention data over 12+ months, wage growth, career promotion/advancement, etc.).
  3. Executive Director or CEO identifies as BIPOC, and/or the organization has a leadership team that is 50% or more BIPOC.
  4. Executive Director or CEO has the same lived experience as the people they employ, and/or 50% or more of the leadership team has the same lived experience as the people they employ.
  5. Executive Director or CEO has involvement with the justice system, which includes incarceration, arrest, and/or being charged with a crime.
  6. 50% or more of the ESE workers are justice system involved (based on 2024 enrollment to date with an intention to continue to serve this population in the future).
  7. 50% or more of the ESE workers are Opportunity Youth/Emerging Adults, defined as individuals who are between the ages of 16 and 24 and have had life experiences that present barriers to employment. These are experiences that are known to increase chances of disconnection from education and employment and include history with foster care, juvenile justice, homelessness/housing instability, and parental incarceration (based on 2024 enrollment to date with an intention to continue to serve this population in the future).
  8. Operations in California, particularly Bay Area and Los Angeles.