Tech Nonprofits Lightning Grant Round

We recommend you RSVP by October 15 so you participant in optional activities and voting to determine which finalist organizations will present on October 30.

In-person meetings for this Lightning Grant Round will be in the evenings on Tuesday, October 30 and November 13 from 6:30pm – 9:00pm at the Mitchell Park Community Center in Palo Alto. Because there are only two meetings, we strongly encourage Partners to attend both in order to experience the whole Grant Round. Please RSVP on Eventbrite for BOTH meetings if you plan to attend both. The Round will kick off in early October, before the first meeting, with diligence pre-work, which includes reading and an optional conference call with our funder ally, Fast Forward.

Once a Partner RSVPs for the Grant Round here on Eventbrite, we will add you to the Lightning Grant Round community on my.SV2, and send communications about the Grant Round (including key dates, links to diligence materials, etc.) in that way. Look for an email through my.SV2 in the second week of October. If you have questions about the Grant Round, please reach out to Amy Badiani at abadiani@sv2.org.

Lightning Grant Rounds are a shortened grantmaking experience, taking place over four to six weeks with only two in-person meetings. For the Lightning Rounds, SV2 collaborates with funder allies who nominate organizations from their own portfolios and share their diligence materials with us. Working with funder allies relieves the burden for nonprofit applicants and allows SV2 Partners to learn how our funder allies approach their work. For this Round, we’re delighted to work with Fast Forward, a tech nonprofit accelerator, who will nominate organizations from their portfolio. During Lightning Rounds, participating Partners have the opportunity to research six organizations in the sector, learn from funder allies about these organizations, hear presentations from the leaders of three finalist organizations, and collectively select a single Grantee. Lightning Round Grantees receive a one-year general operating support grant of up to $30,000, and participating Partners get to engage in a fantastic hands-on learning experience.