To finance significant charitable projects, TED's Audacious Project gathered $1 billion from donations in just two days.

NEW YORK —A partnership known as The Audacious Project, which brought together 35 wealthy donor families in California last October, committed $1.03 billion to over a dozen charities whose proposed projects take on significant obstacles and span several years.

After more than a year of choosing the organizations and assisting them in honing their arguments for bigger projects than philanthropic funders usually support, the collaboration, which is located at TED, named the winning nonprofits on Tuesday. The amount of money donated to each group is not decided until the contributors meet in person.

When the contributors fulfilled their funding request to assist in expanding homeless prevention services to other U.S. cities, Jennifer Loving, CEO of the nonprofit organization Destination: Home, based in San Jose, said it was "shock and awe."

In reference to the stigma associated with poverty, Loving stated, "Working on this issue in America is not for the faint of heart." You sort of brace yourself as a result. It was lovely, but you never know if anyone will notice what you see. It was just lovely.

Since 2021, when she accompanied one of their boys to learn more about climate change funding, Connie Ballmer, cofounder of Ballmer Group, and her husband Steve Ballmer, former Microsoft CEO and Los Angeles Clippers owner, have been donors.

"I don't know of anywhere where you can raise a billion dollars in two days," she remarked. I mean, do you know how long it takes an organization to raise a certain amount of money, whether it's $40, $60, or $80 million?

The Arc Institute, a relatively young research organization in California, is also one of this year's grantees. It will receive funding to help construct a virtual cell model that it thinks will aid researchers in finding cures for complicated illnesses like Alzheimer's.

Funding was also given to Tiko, a nonprofit located in South Africa, to increase the range of services it offers to adolescent girls, such as HIV treatment, contraception, and responses to sexual violence. According to CEO Serah Joy Malaba, Tiko has sought for funding from Audacious for the third time in an attempt to expand their work and reach more females.

The Audacious Project has had at least one round of participation from 55 significant donor families. By invitation and the official requirement that contributors be prepared to contribute at least $10 million to the funding round, the organization grows. Due in part to the promises made by others in the room, many people wind up making larger donations.

Another contributor, Tegan Acton, who cofounded Wildcard Giving with her husband, Brian Acton, a WhatsApp cofounder, stated that she takes part because she supports group efforts and appreciates the emphasis on financing solutions created by those closest to the issues. Acton added that she has liked observing the methods used by various donors while making financial choices.

While others "show up and watch the videos and see what sparks interest," she added, "some people come and they have a binder printed and they have a thousand tabs with little notes about every project and they've marked up the appendices."

Finalists record a TED Talk-style introduction to themselves and their proposal as part of the application process.

According to Loving of Destination: Home, the advice from Audacious and the charity consulting business The Bridgespan Group improved their strategy for expanding their homelessness prevention strategy. Right at Home is an initiative that identifies families and individuals who are most at danger of losing their homes and provides them with financial assistance and support to help them avoid doing so. In San Jose, the strategy has now secured substantial public funding.

Loving stated, "I think going through this process was one of the most demanding things we've ever done." "I am absolutely certain that it improved our intelligence."

An excellent illustration of the kind of significant shift that The Audacious effort looks for is Loving's effort. Her group found a solution that they believe could benefit other locations, but they had not aimed to operate nationally. Instead of expanding or setting up new offices, they will collaborate with neighborhood organizations, provide them with financing, and ask them to take part in studies to gauge the impact.

Last Mile Health was among the groups that got a second commitment from Audacious donors for the first time this year. The number of community health workers trained in several African nations increased from 2,000 to 23,000 thanks to their inaugural funding in 2018. In addition to training more of these frontline health workers, they were given $20 million this time around to support an ongoing initiative to organize and raise greater domestic funding from the nations in which they operate.

"It's not just a charitable investment followed by a cliff," Last Mile Health CEO Lisha McCormick stated. The money will instead be used to help governments restructure how they pay for public health systems after huge cuts to U.S. foreign aid, which accounted for a large amount of some nations' health budgets.

The Audacious Project's executive director, Anna Verghese, stated that they had been thinking about awarding second round funding for some time.

"What kinds of partners are we if we walk away right when that momentum is building?" she asked, posing an honest question to the donor community and herself.