Billions Flood Into Blue Meridian as It Seeks to Help Innovative Small Nonprofits

By Alex Daniels

Excerpted from The Chronicle of Philanthropy

“Blue Meridian has allocated about three-quarters of its funding and is still looking to add new partners. However, the billions controlled by the group is only a small portion of the private support needed to help millions of Americans improve their economic situation, Roob says. She notes that far more money is “sitting on the sidelines in this country that needs to be put to work to actually solve problems.”

Aggregating huge amounts of cash is key to Blue Meridian’s plan. The group works to identify relatively small nonprofits that have developed promising ways to solve social problems but need coaching and guidance — and especially money — to take those approaches national and help a greater number of people. Blue Meridian promises patient, no-strings-attached capital and a group of megadonors who provide advice and connections with other donors outside the collaborative.

The huge amount of cash the donor pool has gathered will allow it to focus more than $100 million on a single approach. Grantees include Youth Villages, which is working to support children transitioning out of foster care, and the Social Finance UP Fund, which provides low-income people with job training.”

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