This award is intended to support the early stages of venture-building, before a venture has proven evidence of their impact model or business model. 

Refer to the criteria here for a more detailed look at how we define early stage.

Proximate social entrepreneurs are leaders who have firsthand knowledge of the communities they seek to drive impact in (because they are actually a part of that community, work with the community and/or they are meaningfully guided by that group’s inputs, ideas, agendas and assets.) and then use that knowledge to develop solutions (and specifically in Promise’s context, in order to address the key barriers to equitable outcomes for children ages 0 - 5, their families and their caregivers). 

We invest in proximate leaders because we believe they have the greatest potential to transform the early childhood field, but face the greatest obstacles, especially at the earliest stages of social entrepreneurship. 

Review our criteria with the full definition and evaluation of proximate leaders here.

The Promise Fund was developed in acknowledgement that flexible funding isn’t as common as it should be for early stage entrepreneurs. We invest in leaders we believe in, and we trust their judgement around the use of their funds. Our reporting requirements are designed to be simple, impact-focused, and not overly detailed on spending. If you have questions, please contact us to discuss.

For tax and compliance reasons related to the structure of these awards, any for-profit award winners must use the funding for charitable purposes, according to IRS definitions. One of the practical implications of this requirement is that the funding may not be spent on buying or developing assets. 

All nonprofit award winners will receive funding in the form of a grant. Award winners with ventures structured as for-profit companies may receive funding as a grant or as an equity investment in the form of a SAFE, if the venture is on a path to raising capital through equity investments.

The Build Award is open to nonprofits (including 501(c)(3)s and fiscally sponsored projects) and for-profit organizations.

Note: Reporting requirements may shift depending on your incorporation status; our team will provide more information to selected applicants when necessary.

While the Q&A sessions are not recorded, we have a running document here where we’ve compiled the questions and responses we’ve received from those sessions. If you have a question, please review this log first as it may have already been answered!

In 2026, we expect to select 6 ventures to receive Build Awards inclusive of $200k in flexible funding and supportive capacity-building programming.

This application process is in two parts. Step one is to submit all sections of the Preliminary Application by Friday, April 10. A subset of applicants will then be invited to complete the full application this summer. 

At both stages of the application process, multiple members of our selection team will review each eligible application. Our selection team is made up of internal Promise Team members and a few trusted partners from the early childhood field. The selection team will take a holistic approach to evaluation, holding in mind our selection criteria to help us identify candidates aligned with the goals of The Promise Fund and this award. Strong candidates may exhibit closer alignment with some criteria than others.

At the Preliminary Application stage, we will focus on the following subset of our selection criteria:

• Proximity: Leader has lived and learned expertise in the problem or opportunity area their venture was developed to address because they are actually part of the community*, have a history of working with the community, and/or they are meaningfully guided by the community’s inputs, ideas, priorities, and assets.

• Equity Focus: Venture’s mission centers more equitable outcomes for young children and/or their families and caregivers, especially by focusing on fair access, resources, and opportunities for communities that have faced historical and ongoing disinvestment or marginalization. Venture can point to systemic barriers that relate to the problem or opportunity area they are addressing. 

• Impact Potential: The venture presents a compelling opportunity to create positive change for children prenatal to age 5 and/or their families and caregivers, with a sound argument for their specific approach to producing outcomes. 

• Venture Stage: The venture is still at an early stage with some evidence to support their impact and business models. They are working towards a milestone that will set them on a stronger path.

For applicants invited to complete the Full Application, we will apply our full selection criteria. 

In addition to considering these criteria, we aspire to select a diverse group of award winners in terms of focus areas within early childhood, modalities of impact, and geographic focus.

The senior-most leader on the team (Executive Director, CEO, or similar) should complete the application and participate in the interview process.  

If selected, the senior-most leader should attend the in-person convening and engage with the support offerings of this award.

One exception to this rule is intrapreneurs. We define an intrapreneur as a leader who is developing a product, program, or other offering inside of another organization, such as a research university or a company. Intrapreneurs are building offerings that are not natural extensions of their parent organization’s existing programs or products – i.e. not something we would expect the parent organization to sustain internally. In this case, the application should be completed by the person leading the development of the product, program, or other offering.

You can preview the preliminary application here!

The support we provide grantees is borne from the needs they articulate; we are partners, not gatekeepers, not supervisors. Our grantees set their impact targets and the metrics that contribute to the measurement of our own impact. Award recipients will help co-create and shape their program experience by identifying the workshops, resources, and relationships most relevant to their goals.

We see trust, choice, and clear program milestones not as competing ideas but as complementary forces that help leaders achieve their goals. In the pilot year, we've learned, many leaders express their aspirations and needs through a fundraising lens: the need to raise more funds to continue working towards their idea. Our role is to translate those aspirations into the necessary capacities that enable them to create evidence and generate funding or revenue that aligns with that potential.

That means our milestones both honor a leader's vision and make visible the conditions funders look for: clarity of impact, a viable business model, and a capable team. Setting milestones together, with flexibility for each founder's context and goals, allows us to respect a leader's agency and wisdom while providing the structure and resources that can turn their ideas into fundable, sustainable ventures.

In short, trust means believing leaders know where they want to go; our milestone framework makes explicit the capabilities: validation, impact and business model thinking, and that helps them build evidence and attract the resources they need.

Promise has stewarded two main communities: the Early Childhood Leaders of Color Collaborative (EC LOC), a space where we unite BIPOC and proximate innovators to drive personal sustainability and collective power and the Promise Venture Network (PVN), a community for leaders interested in their ventures’ growth and impact. Promise also has a history of connecting ventures to sources of capital, customers and potential partners in order to facilitate the field’s most equitable marketplace of capital to ventures. Award recipients will be able to tap into the power of both our diverse networks and our connections in order to drive their progress forward!

12-month commitment of ~4-6 hours per month, with a mix of required sessions and self-determined participation in additional Fund offerings. Recipients are also expected to attend an in-person convening tentatively scheduled for October 2026.

A note about the broader goals of the Promise Fund:

Beyond offering direct funding, Promise Venture Studio is engaging in a field-building effort to elevate the powerful ideas, ventures, and leaders shaping the future of early childhood development. Our goals include illustrating the urgent need for more early-stage funding and making a compelling case to other funders for deeper investment in proximate social entrepreneurship in early childhood development.

Your application is a key part of this effort. We may draw on the information you share to (in aggregate):

• Demonstrate the breadth and potential of innovation in this space,

• Highlight stories that help funders understand the real-world impact of early investment, and

• Inspire greater support for this fund and the leaders, organizations, and ventures it backs.

With your application submission, you’re agreeing to allow us to learn from and potentially lift up the story of your work. That said:

• We will never share identifying or organizational details publicly without your explicit permission.

• We will never share your original ideas publicly without your explicit permission.

• If we’d like to feature your idea or venture in any public-facing materials or fundraising efforts, we’ll contact you first to confirm your consent and collaborate on how your story is shared.

• If at any point you would like to opt-out of our storytelling efforts, please contact us at fund@promisestudio.org.

We are committed to approaching this work with care, consent, and transparency—because storytelling should never come at the expense of the storyteller.

The Promise Fund is a catalytic, philanthropic impact fund by Promise Venture Studio that supports proximate leaders reimagining early childhood through community-rooted innovation. We provide capital and support at the earliest stages through two awards: the Imagine Award and the Build Award. Learn more here.