Our mission
Find the point where a small force moves a great weight — then put people, media, and capital behind it.
Our ecosystem
Programs, media, capital, and community operating as one system rather than separate initiatives.
- Programs that train founders and leaders
- Media that carries the story
- Capital that funds the work
- Community that sustains it
How we work
Alongside operators, not above them. We commit for the long term and measure what changes.
Our mission
Give mission-driven organizations the leverage to fund their own future.
A fulcrum multiplies force. Ours is training, mentoring and capital applied at the point where a social venture can shift from depending on donations to earning the revenue that sustains its mission — so the impact outlives any single grant.
- Academies delivered
- 32+Academies delivered
- Organizations strengthened
- 300+Organizations strengthened
- Business mentors engaged
- 150Business mentors engaged
- New investment & earned income
- $10M+New investment & earned income
- Generated new revenue within a year
- 65%Generated new revenue within a year
- Say the Academy changed how they operate
- 94%Say the Academy changed how they operate
“To date, our unique, innovative combination of training, mentoring and fast-pitch venture competition has expanded capacity in over 300 not-for-profit organizations, utilized the mentoring talent of 150 business men and women, and produced over $10 million dollars in new investment and earned income streams.”
Mission in practice
Impact Studio
Impact Studio is where the mission becomes a working newsroom, production house and training floor — students and trainees run real media services for the community they live in.
- Teaching students media production and broadcasting
- Providing workforce pathways
- Distributing locally produced educational programming
- Preserving and presenting historically significant films
- Giving nonprofits and community organizations media access
- Producing civic, cultural, arts and local-business education
- Using students and trainees to operate the service under supervision
Provide resources
Academies for Social Enterprises
For social entrepreneurs
Academies for Social Entrepreneurship (ASE) fosters innovative solutions to social issues by offering training and mentorship to social entrepreneurs. ASE acts as a facilitator and catalyst, concentrating on providing entrepreneurs with the necessary resources to establish and maintain successful social enterprises.
- Training built around real social enterprise models
- Mentorship from experienced business leaders
- Resources to launch a venture with a clear revenue plan
- Support to sustain the enterprise past its first year
The method
How an Academy works
Every cohort follows the same four movements, whether it runs at UCLA, inside a church network, or with a global partner.
- 1
Assemble the cohort
We recruit a cohort of not-for-profits, churches and community ventures in one region, so peers work through the same questions side by side.
- 2
Train the venture team
Over three to six months teams learn market analysis, pricing, blended-value business modeling and the analytical habits that hold a venture together.
- 3
Match with mentors
Each team is paired with business mentors — operators, attorneys, finance leaders — who pressure-test the model between sessions.
- 4
Pitch and launch
Teams close with a fast-pitch venture competition, then leave with a funded plan for earned revenue rather than another grant cycle.
- Enable not-for-profit organizations to develop the skill sets and resources to attract growth capital and increase revenue from earned, rather than donated, income
- Build overall organizational capacity by applying business practices and analytical thinking to everyday operations
- Create community-based change in the broader local not-for-profit marketplace by promoting convergence between the best practices of business and philanthropy
What guides us
Our values
Earned revenue over dependency
Durable missions need income they control. We build revenue models before we build fundraising decks.
Community first
Programs are designed with local partners so the change stays in the neighborhood that created it.
Practical innovation
Business discipline applied to social problems — tested in the market, not just in the workshop.
Blended value
Every venture we back is measured on both the social good it creates and the margin that keeps it alive.
Accountability
We publish outcomes, evaluate cohorts after the program ends, and keep what the evidence supports.
Access to capital
Training is only half the work; we connect founders to mentors, sponsors and the investment fund.
Related pages
Keep exploring
Meet the Fulcrum Impact team
Staff and board advisors behind the programs.
Academy cohorts for social entrepreneurs
How cohorts are formed and what to expect.
Awards & Testimonials
Recognition, letters of support, and partner stories.
Nonprofit investment fund for social ventures
How we put capital behind graduate ventures.