Building what Lasts: Welcoming The Audacious Project’s Newest Cohort

How do you create real, lasting change? It’s one of the biggest questions in philanthropy, and  one that we are constantly turning over. Change in the short-term can seem relatively clear: raise money and deploy a solution with a great team. The greater challenge is understanding how the solution works as planned — and where it doesn’t, teaching you something important — over time. 

At The Audacious Project, we’ve spent eight years deliberately learning and building that second part: how this all unfolds over time, long after the initial funding ends. We don’t just look for big ideas; we look for ideas that can be put into meaningful action for paradigm-shifting, sustainable change. We’ve learned (among much else) that big challenges need big bets and unrestricted, multi-year funding — and that kind of resourcing takes a courageous community of peer funders. 

As the newest cohort launches, we are again blown away by their visions for the future. From leveraging AI to discover new medical treatments to charting paths to plastic-free oceans, the Audacious donor community committed $1.03B in total funding at the end of last year to bring these ideas to life.

The Audacious Project 2025 grantees include:

• Arc Institute, led by Silvana Konermann: Creating the world's first high-utility virtual cell, an AI model accelerating medical breakthroughs toward cures for intractable diseases
• Braven, led by Aimée Eubanks Davis: Closing the college-to-career gap for low-income and first-generation college students in the United States by partnering with higher education and employers to prepare students for the workforce 
• Imagine Worldwide, led by Rapelang Rabana: Scaling solar-powered, offline edtech learning solutions to reach students across Malawi, Sierra Leone and Tanzania
• Ipas, led by Anu Kumar and Jean-Claude Mulunda: Preventing unsafe abortion in sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and South Asia by removing systemic, legal and social barriers to care
• Plastic Solutions Fund, led by Nicky Davies: Reducing plastic production and fostering a reuse-based, circular economy in partnership with the #BreakFreeFromPlastic movement
• Pure Earth, led by Drew McCartor: Protecting children from lead poisoning by helping 22 low- and middle-income countries implement proven approaches to prevent exposure and reduce health risks
• Destination: Home’s “Right at Home,” led by Jennifer Loving: Stopping homelessness before it starts by scaling a proven prevention model across the country, redefining how the United States responds to the housing affordability crisis 
• Solutions for Our Climate, led by Joojin Kim: Transforming maritime trade into an industry  that drives global decarbonization
• The Ocean Cleanup, led by Boyan Slat: Stopping plastic from flowing into our oceans by intercepting and removing the waste accumulating in rivers
• Tiko, led by Serah Malaba: Empowering and protecting girls across Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, Nigeria, South Africa and Burkina Faso from HIV, unintended pregnancy and sexual violence by connecting them to free care.

The Audacious Project reinvestment organizations include: 

• Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT), led by Rebecca Firth: Establishing an Open Mapping Marketplace that connects trained and certified local mappers with decision-makers needing high-quality geospatial data to strengthen livelihoods and planning
• Last Mile Health, led by Lisha McCormick: Saving the lives of women and children across the African continent by partnering with governments to train community health workers to deliver cost-effective primary care and transform health financing
• Thorn, Led by Julie Cordua: Hardwiring child safety into the fabric of the internet by equipping technology companies and law enforcement with AI-driven tools to combat child sexual abuse, protect children at scale and outpace emerging threats

Over the past eight years, the Audacious donor community has committed $4.6B in support of 70 bold projects spanning health, climate and community-led innovation, each one grounded in real-world work and designed to turn urgency into action. Audacious grantees have subsequently leveraged an additional $3B from other funders, catalyzing $7.6B in total funding. These figures point to the distinct power of collaborative philanthropy, when bold ideas and possibility are matched with a committed community that acts with purpose.

To our grantees: thank you for your courage, your creativity and your relentless commitment to change. And to our community: thank you for learning alongside us and for trusting in these incredible leaders. This work and this belief in what's possible, is something we build together.

In humble gratitude,

Anna Verghese

Executive Director, The Audacious Project