The Promise Sandbox Award is a pilot initiative that is designed for proximate, early childhood changemakers with bold, community-rooted ideas for transformative impact who are ready to move from concept to action. Equipped with a $20,000 unrestricted grant and capacity building support, awardees will shape and strengthen their ideas into viable tests, prototypes, or pilots and deepen their learning about their ideas, their communities and the opportunity areas they are most passionate about. 

The Promise Sandbox Award is one of two 2025 pilot initiatives that we hope will lead to a full launch of The Promise Fund (see ‘What is the Promise Fund?’) in 2026. 

Like all pilots, we are using this opportunity to perform a small-scale test to see how our envisioned Sandbox might work in practice - including reflecting on what works, what doesn’t, and what needs to be adjusted - in order to learn and strengthen our proposed offering as a whole. As a result, In addition to selecting 3-5 ventures to receive the award, through this Pilot initiative, Promise Venture Studio will also:

• Engage in a storytelling and field-building effort to elevate the powerful innovations, ventures, and leaders shaping the future of early childhood development

• Co-create with awardees an initial pilot of programming and capacity building supports to distinctly accelerate the impact of selected ideas

• Build a learning agenda and test top hypothesis to inform next iterations of product development and future offerings

• Illustrate the urgent need for early-stage funding and make a compelling case to the field for deeper investment in proximate social entrepreneurship in early childhood

The Promise Sandbox Awards’ application opens April 16, 2025 and closes on May 21, 2025 at 11:59pm EST.

To apply to the award, you can complete the application form linked to on this page. You can preview the application questions in this document.

Finalists will receive notice of their advancement to the final round on June 6, 2025. We strive to share decisions by the end of June.

Note: Finalists may be asked to participate in an interview or provide a reference who is familiar with their work the week of June 9th.

We are selecting between 3-5 ideas for this grant opportunity. As this is a pilot, we hope to make this offering available again in the future.

A committee of Promise Team members will review all applications and select award winners on the basis of the criteria described on this page under “Who We’re Looking For”. It is important to note that awardees must be 18 years or older and have an idea that would be impactful to children in the United States.

We define proximate leaders as leaders whose identities and/or experiences mirror or represent the populations they serve and whose orientations demonstrate deep empathy for and knowledge of the communities they support. We understand leaders’ proximity by how they talk about their experiences, identities, and their whys. 

Yes, the goal of the award is to help early childhood leaders put their new ideas into action.

No! We welcome ideas that could evolve into or include non-profit, for-profit, or undetermined structures.

This pilot program is specifically designed for early-stage changemakers who want to test and develop their ideas. If you have an established venture that is already in the early growth stage or beyond, this particular opportunity is not a good fit. 

Specifically, we are not accepting applications from:

• Organizations that have already completed multiple pilots of their solution

• Established ventures beyond the initial concept development phase

• Initiatives that have secured significant funding or champion support

We've intentionally focused this program on supporting leaders at the earliest stages of their journey, where access to initial resources and support can be most catalytic. If you're unsure whether your venture qualifies, please reach out to us directly with specific details about your stage of development.

If you have any questions about your fit for this award, please reach out to team@promisestudio.org.

Leaders selected for this grant will receive $20,000 of unrestricted* funding in service of piloting their idea, and the support of the Promise team in making that pilot happen. You can learn more about the programmatic support we intend to offer in ‘What are the expectations for grantees?’

The Promise Fund was developed in acknowledgement that no-strings funding isn’t as common as it should be. A 2023 study from the Center for Effective Philanthropy (CEP) on the impact of large unrestricted grants on established nonprofits found that recipients accelerated their impact by investing in pay equity, capacity, innovation, and operational initiatives that improved staff morale and creativity. We also know the importance of dollars to ideas and organizations at the earliest stages.

While we anticipate that most of the applicants for the Promise Sandbox Awards will be individuals, we want to share framing for both individuals and leaders who have incorporated around their ideas.

There are slightly different requirements for providing funding and reporting guidelines depending on your entity status. We’ve outlined the differences below.

Individuals (and other non-501c3s entities like for-profit, LLC, S-corp, B-corp, etc):

• Our team will work with you to align on a clear charitable purpose use of the grant dollars that meets IRS guidelines.

• There are still some reporting requirements. Our goal is to keep it simple and impact-focused, not overly detailed on spending. This may include: Sharing your story as part of our public-facing communications or using another simple format.

• Without 501c3 status you will also be required to provide financial reporting following IRS guidelines.

Nonprofits

• Grants to nonprofits are unrestricted, meaning you can use the funds at your discretion. Promise will not dictate how the money is used to support your idea or venture.

• There are still some reporting requirements. Our goal is to keep it simple and impact-focused, not overly detailed on spending. This may include: Sharing your story as part of our public-facing communications or using another simple format.
  
  Note: If you are accepted for the award, please make sure that you work to understand the tax (and other legal/financial) implications of your grant.

Yes! As long as your work meets the definition of charitable use as outlined by the IRS. We will support awardees in understanding their obligations here (and recommend that you do your own due diligence as well!).

At Promise, we strive to be more than a pathway to funding—we aim to be a true partner, offering resources and connections that extend beyond financial support.

We ask leaders in the pilot program to participate in the following ways:   

• Ongoing Connections with a Promise Resource Mobilizer: Leaders will have regular connections with a dedicated Promise team member who serves as a thought partner and connector to tailored resources. These conversations also create space for both leaders and Promise to share updates. Meeting frequency will be flexible based on individual needs.

• Two In-Person Gatherings: Leaders will come together twice during the pilot year for multi-day convenings focused on relationship-building, shared learning, and co-creation. These gatherings will center joy, peer exchange, and meaningful collaboration. Convening Dates: September 2025 and TBD.

• Supporting Promise’s Learning and Case Making Efforts: As we work alongside grantees to support the development of their ideas, we ask that they work with us to participate in storytelling to build the case for future investments, they support our learning for the field and in the future and help us design future iterations of the award, and partner with us for what, if any reporting, they may have to do on progress.

Beyond those requirements, to holistically support leaders, over the course of an awardee’s one year relationship with us, the Promise Sandbox Award offers:

• Community: Cultivate relationships with fellow early childhood development (ECD) leaders, engage in peer support, and access mentorship from experienced founders.

• Connections: Extending our social capital, Promise will make our best effort to facilitate introductions to ECD peers and potential funders, and support your development strategy.

• Coaching: Access on-demand coaching from experts in ECD, marketing, sales, program development, and more.

• Customized Learning: Participate in flexible, needs-based workshops or camps designed to support your growth.

• Collaboration: Work with the Promise team to co-create solutions and shape a shared narrative.

As a pilot program, we see awardees as partners in building something meaningful together. Your participation will include:

• Storytelling for Future Investment: Sharing your journey and impact to help us build a compelling case for expanding this work and increasing future investments

• Collaborative Learning: Contributing to our shared understanding of what works in supporting early childhood innovation and community-centered leadership

• Program Co-Design: Providing insights and feedback that will directly shape future iterations of this fund and our support model

• Field Building: Participating in efforts to document lessons learned and effective practices that can benefit the broader early childhood development field

We value your expertise and lived experience, and this collaborative approach allows us to create a program that truly meets the needs of leaders like you while establishing a foundation for sustainable impact. We intend for this learning to be reciprocal - we will be learning from awardees and in turn will share with them our insights from this work and our other programmatic efforts past and present.

We will not disclose concepts without permission. We do not intend to make ideas public or to use your ideas to create or aid in the creation of any new programs, products and services.

If you are not selected, we would love to stay connected and have you reapply if and when a future award opportunity is available. After the pilot launches, we hope to host some programming for both awardees and the other great change makers who have applied to support idea development and refinement. We are also actively making plans for the next cycle of the award — keep an eye on this website for updates.

At Promise Venture Studio, we believe achieving equity in early childhood for children under 5 has the greatest impact potential of any social investment in the country. We also believe equity-driven social innovation from proximate leaders is the most promising strategy to realize this impact. That said, proximate leaders in the field face highly inequitable access to capital, support, and community necessary to pursue, improve, and scale their social innovations. The proposed Promise Fund is designed to address this inequity. 

In collaboration with partners across the field, Promise Venture Studio is actively exploring the launch of The Promise Fund - a catalytic, philanthropic impact fund designed to supercharge a community of aspiring, early-stage, proximate change makers in Early Childhood Development and disrupt systemic barriers by placing trust, capital, and support directly in the hands of early childhood-focused social entrepreneurs who are personally connected with the communities they impact creating pathways for traditionally underfunded leaders to access resources and scale their impact to improve child and family well-being.

Over time, we expect The Promise Fund will result in: 

• More proximate-led, social innovations accelerated to drive more impact in their communities and serve as bright spots to inspire replication and policy change across the field.

• More capital accelerated to promising social innovators and innovations

• An active learning agenda with a published set of lessons and case statements that will support the scale and quality of future strategies for transformational change in the field and improved wellbeing outcomes for children, families, and caregivers. 

If you’re interested in learning more about The Promise Fund, including learning more about our current exploration or becoming a champion or partner, please reach out to team@promisestudio.org.