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. The criteria below is for the 2023 application cycle.

Enterprise Eligibility: Businesses in the Growth Portfolio

Structure

  • Operate a revenue-generating social enterprise to produce a product/service for which the social enterprise is paid.
  • Employ and support individuals from one or more of our focus populations to produce the product/service.
  • Pay hourly wages that meet or exceed local minimum wage standards.
  • Have been fully operational (have regular and repeatable operations, an established revenue model, and a customer base) for 12 months by the time of this application.
  • Provide supportive services, training, and/or programming to help its employees break through barriers to work. These supportive services have been in operation for at least 12 months.

Revenue

Have secured 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. The $100K in earned revenue must come from one business line. 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.

Relationship to REDF

  • Graduated from a qualifying REDF program such as our Accelerator, have an active or closed loan from our impact investing fund, are a current contractor of the LA:RISE program, or were a Bay Area or Seattle Regional Grantee in 2020. (Note: If the Accelerator fellow has departed the organization, the organization is still eligible.)
  • Were not a previous member of our 2016-2020 Venture Philanthropy Portfolio or are not currently enrolled in the Accelerator. (Note: If an organization received venture philanthropy investment from REDF prior to 2016, it can be eligible if it meets all other requirements).

Capacity to Participate

  • Have no known or planned transition of the CEO, Executive Director, or key leaders responsible for strategy and operations within the next 12 months. Exceptions can be made when the planned transition involves an existing staff member.
  • Have no ongoing or anticipated impact measurement evaluation(s) that would limit the ability to make programmatic changes over the next two years.
  • Are willing and able to commit fully to REDF partnership — see details in What to Expect section.
  • Are willing and eager to embed the values of DEI and racial equity in the curriculum.

Legal Status

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

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

Our strategic priorities signal key directions we lean into for the coming year. They are shaped by our strategic plan, learning agenda, current portfolio composition, and our own funders, and are subject to change each application cycle. In exceptional cases, we may accept a group that does not meet all eligibility requirements to support our strategic priority goals. Some strategic priorities are weighted more heavily than others.

  • Operations in the following states (roughly South / Sunbelt): Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia.
  • Executive Director or CEO identifies as a BIPOC, and/or the organization has a leadership team that is more than 50% BIPOC.
  • Executive Director or CEO has the same lived experience as the people they employ, and/or more than 50% of the leadership team has the same lived experience as the people they employ.
  • Executive Director or CEO has experienced involvement with the justice system, which includes incarceration, arrest, and/or being charged with a crime.
  • More than 50%1 of the ESE participant workers are justice system involved.
  • More than 50%1 of the ESE participant workers are refugees, asylees, or survivors of domestic violence and/or trafficking.
  • More than 50%1 of the ESE participant workers are Opportunity Youth.
  • Provides employment opportunities at large scale for one or more of our focus populations (e.g., >300 or more individuals).

1 based on 2023 enrollment to date, with an intention to continue to serve this population in the future