What is the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky Social Innovation Fund?
With the support of a two-year, $2 million grant from the Corporation for National and Community Service, local funders are coming together to provide catalytic support - both grant funding and capacity building services - to innovative, effective community solutions along the cradle to career continuum in Cincinnati, Newport and Covington.

What are the SIF's Goals?
Through a combination of federal and local funds, the funders' collaborative will provide $1.7 million annually to support 5-10 local organizations or collaborations.
Programs must be able to demonstrate their effectiveness in supporting low-income communities in one of the following outcome areas: Kindergarten Readiness, Fourth Grade Reading, High School Graduation and College Preparedness, Postsecondary Enrollment and Completion, and Sustained Employment.

How Can My Organization Apply for Funding?
To find details on the application process including eligibility criteria, timeline and deadlines, please download and read the Request for Proposal.

What is a "Social Innovation?"
The SIF considers “social innovation” as the development of a potentially transformative practice or approach to meeting critical social challenges.  An approach is “transformative” if it not only produces strong impact but also 1) has the potential to affect how the same challenge is addressed in other communities, 2) addresses more than one critical social challenge concurrently, or 3) produces significant cost savings through efficiency gains.

What is an "Effective" Community Solution?
The SIF is not only looking for innovative "big ideas" but also effective community solutions.  Organizations applying to be partners with the SIF will need to demonstrate where their program falls on a continuum of evidence of effectiveness ranging from preliminary evidence of effectiveness to evidence of strong impact.

What Will Grant Funding Support?
Organizations with at least moderate evidence of effectiveness can use grant funds to replicate or expand their programming.  Organizations with only a preliminary level of evidence will need to make initial investments in evaluation and research to increase the evidence of effectiveness.
Grant funds can be used to support costs associated with expansion and/or replication, including:

• Program operating costs to support expansion or replication
• Evaluation
• Organizational capacity development, including:
  • Training
  • Board and volunteer recruitment and training
  • Information systems and technology
  • Purchase of equipment and supplies.