Review all the frequently asked questions, watch a recording of our Q&A webinar, then email us if you have more questions or need technical support.
Seven years ago, we set out to do something bold and different, launching the first round of 100&Change. Now, we are launching the third cycle to help address another of the world’s most critical issues.
By funding 100&Change at a level far above what is typical in philanthropy, we seek to address problems and support solutions that are radically different in scale, scope, and complexity. We believe $100 million can enable real progress toward a meaningful and lasting solution to a critical problem of our time.
The first and second rounds of 100&Change offered opportunities for learning. An evaluation of the selection process from the inaugural competition informed changes to the selection process for the 2020 award recipient.
In the second round, we created an organizational readiness tool to help potential applicants determine their readiness to compete in 100&Change. We added a participatory review process, where applicants within the same domain scored and provided feedback on each other’s proposals.
Proposals experienced a drop in the number of applications compared to the inaugural competition, 755 in 2021 vs. 1,904 in 2017 due to the introduction of the organizational readiness tool and a peer-to-peer review before the Wise Head Panel review. We believe that the new organizational readiness tool helped eliminate projects that were not a good fit for 100&Change, and we will continue to use it.
For the third round of the competition, we revisited the application criteria to align with MacArthur’s Just Imperative rooted in the value of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.
As a result, we have added “just” as a criterion. In doing so, we sought to frame the five criteria as a whole so that any applicant can see their project reflected. We ask applicants to demonstrate a commitment to equity, inclusion, and accessibility and provide a solution that benefits different populations equitably. We believe there is no topic that is exempt or excluded from these commitments, and so this criterion is not a barrier to entry.
These changes are intended to provide an enhanced level of feedback and ensure that all applicants benefit at each stage of the competition.
We are open to ideas that identify a single problem and its proposed solution. We welcome applications from around the world as well as from both nonprofit and for-profit organizations (subject to the rules that govern private foundations). We hope to inspire a wide range of applications that propose real, measurable solutions to significant problems from any field or sector.
There are no preferences for topic area or geographic location, and certain geographies or issue areas are not favored over others. As a reminder, applications will be evaluated based on the scoring criteria. In your application, please select the locations of the communities your proposed solution is serving and/or will serve in the future should you be awarded $100M. While the application has space to list up to five locations, you may have more than that and can include your full list on other responses to the application, such as Solution Overview.
There is no minimum organizational budget required – we leave it up to each participant to demonstrate financial responsibility, feasibility, and their ability to successfully manage and implement the proposed solution over the five-year grant period.
No sector or field is out of bounds of this competition. All submissions must propose a serious solution to a significant problem that has a charitable purpose. Proposals must then pass through a rigorous application process and meet the requirements of being impactful, evidence-based, feasible, durable, and just. Please spend time thoroughly reviewing the rubric to learn more about how we define a strong solution.
Any organization or legal entity, except for government agencies and individuals, can apply, subject to eligibility rules. Tribes and affiliates or entities of Tribes are eligible to apply as the lead entity.
All projects must further a charitable purpose (see Private Benefit Rules).
Per our rules, 501(c)6 organizations are not eligible to apply as a lead organization but can be a partner as long as the proposed solution and the use of funds are clearly for a charitable purpose and meet requirements listed under the Lobbying Policy.
A 501(c)4 organization is not eligible to participate as a lead applicant. A 501(c)4 organization may participate in or collaborate on a project advanced by an eligible entity such as a 501(c)3 organization provided the following conditions are met: (i) the project must have a clearly articulated charitable purpose, (ii) the eligible organization will have the legal responsibility and authority for the use of and reporting on any grant funds, and would exercise in fact and law direction, control and supervision of the proposed project; (iii) none of the funds would be used by the 501(c)4 organization other than for the identified charitable purpose, and (iv) the 501(c)4 organization would not engage in any political activities, including participating in or contributing to a political campaign on behalf of or in opposition to any political candidate, or lobby any legislative entity as part of or with respect to the project.
We welcome applicants of any size but have generally found that larger organizations are more likely to effectively absorb and deploy very large grants. While this is not true for all organizations, we encourage you to think critically about whether your organization would be able to take on such a large amount of capital over only a few years, particularly if a $100 million (USD) grant would dramatically increase your annual operating budget.
Use the organizational readiness tool to find out. We created this tool to help potential applicants determine their readiness to compete in 100&Change.
100&Change is seeking solutions to any problem around the world – there are no preferences for topic area or geographic locations, and certain geographies or issue areas are not favored over others.
Proposed solutions will be evaluated using the scoring rubric so please spend time thoroughly reviewing the rubric to learn more about how we define a strong solution. To understand our approach to evaluating solutions at this stage, read our blog post explaining how similar solutions at this stage were screened during administrative review in 2016.
Please review this FAQ page, application requirements and the rules to learn more about what is eligible and required of 100&Change participants.
We also encourage all our participants to consider the amount of time and resources required to be competitive. The majority of applicants from 2016 and 2019 reported spending over 40 hours completing the 100&Change application. Any Finalists that are selected will be required to complete a range of additional activities, including but not limited to: a detailed revised proposal; in-person meetings and workshops with intermediary organizations; external communications through the MacArthur Foundation (e.g., blog posts); and other activities to be defined. Many Finalists from the previous 100&Change program reported that the process was both time and resource intensive. Consider whether you have the capacity to take on the responsibilities of a Finalist.
Yes—keeping in mind the feedback and comments received from the Wise Head Panel and/or Participatory Review on any prior submission. Applicants should also review changes to the scoring rubric.
Government entities, inter-governmental agencies, regional cooperation bodies, and agencies, organizations, organs or elements of the United Nations, are not eligible to participate as the lead applicant. However, such entities can participate as a partner and/or collaborate on a project submitted by a lead applicant as long as the identified lead applicant/grant recipient is a qualified organization with the legal responsibility and authority for the use of and reporting on any grant funds, and would exercise in fact and law direction, control and supervision of the proposed project and the grant funds. The lead entity cannot act as a pass-through to a government entity as 100&Change is not intended to fund services ordinarily provided by government.
Tribes and affiliates or entities of Tribes are not included in this prohibition and can apply as the lead entity.
Organizations with fiscal sponsors are eligible to apply. The lead organization should be a single legal eligible entity with the legal responsibility, authority for and control of the use of any grants funds and be responsible for the reporting on any grant funds and must be able to exercise in fact and law direction, control and supervision of the proposed project and the grant funds. We leave this up to each team to determine and describe in the application and MOU. Applicants may list both the fiscal sponsor and the organization name in the Lead Organization field on the registration form (such as Organization Name (Fiscal Sponsor) or Fiscal Sponsor – Organization Name).
Once selected to receive an award, the lead organization will be required to enter into an additional separate agreement with and acceptable to the competition sponsor (i.e. MacArthur Foundation) pursuant to which, among other things, it reaffirms in writing its agreement to specific key terms and conditions and rules. Should you advance to the later stages of 100&Change, you will have the opportunity to provide updated information as needed for the lead organization formally entering into this separate agreement.
We encourage you to select a single project that best represents your organization's ability to deliver a solution that is impactful, evidence-based, feasible, durable, and just. Please review the application requirements, rules, and scoring process to understand how your submission will be evaluated.
An organization may submit more than one application, and an organization can be a partner on more than one application as long as each submission is focused on separate and distinct projects. Multiple applications for the same project may be deemed ineligible and invalid.
Regional or location-specific branches of larger organizations, as well as departments, schools, and nonprofits within or based in a college/university, can each register and submit separately as the lead applicant on more than one application as long as the proposed solutions are different and separate. Each application must be submitted by a different team member using a unique email address. Overlapping membership of advisory boards is permitted. The intent of the policy is to ensure that any team is concentrating their best effort into a single application.
The following are required in order to complete and submit an application for 100&Change:
Partners are not required and we leave it up to each applicant to decide how to best involve partners and describe them. While the application has space to list up to five partners, you may have more than five and can include your full list on other responses to the application such as the MOU, Case for Partnership, and Why Your Team. Review the Requirements Regarding Any Proposed Collaboration.
We understand partnerships may be in progress or may change after the submission deadline – those who move on as finalists will have the opportunity to provide updated information. We encourage you to include as much information as possible by the submission deadline on September 5.
Be sure to select a member of the applicant team to be the lead applicant who will best serve as the Grantee and will have direction, control, and supervision of the proposed project and management of all grant funds, as well as be responsible for all reporting requirements.
The award is expected to be used for the purposes of the project. We realize, however, that in some circumstances an applicant may have necessary overhead that can be fairly allocable to the project. The MacArthur Foundation allows no more than 29% of the grant for overhead consistent with our Indirect Cost Policy.
Subgrants are considered project-related costs and a partner's indirect costs can be included as part of the total subgrant designated for that partner. The 29% refers to all indirect costs of the $100M project you are proposing. We understand some partners and sub-grantees may not yet be known. Please describe them as best you can in your proposal. Should you advance to the Finalist stage, you will have an opportunity to provide more information and make revisions, including updating your list of partners.
For ineligible activities (per the readiness tool):
Reasonable costs related to construction, infrastructure, research, scholarships, etc. that are part of the larger proposed solution are allowed.
Please review the rules for more information.
The competition launched on Wednesday, May 22, 2024. You must register by 5:00 PM U.S. Central Time on Thursday, August 15, 2024. Applications are due no later than 5:00 PM U.S. Central Time on Thursday, September 5, 2024.
Evaluation takes place following the submission deadline with an administrative review to check for compliance with the rules and application requirements.
Participatory Review is required and takes place from October to November, and Wise Head Panel review is from November to December. Finalists will be selected in the Spring 2025 and an Awardee will be selected in Winter 2025.
The Awardee of 100&Change will be provided up to a five-year grant period and we expect this to begin no earlier than January 2026. When responding to Project Phases in the application, we leave the parameters and timeframes up to each participant to decide. You are welcome to use January 2026 as a guideline and there is flexibility with regard to the start date and end date, all of which will be confirmed during the Finalist stage should your organization advance. And if selected as the Awardee, you will enter a separate grant agreement with the MacArthur Foundation that will outline all these details.
Finalists and the Awardee will have opportunity to provide updates, revised timelines, budgets and more information during the project development phase of 100&Change.
Please see the application (Solution Overview, Durability of Impact, Project Phases) and the timeline for more information.
We considered three different models.
The first was a crowdsourcing model. We liked the idea of people proposing which problems to solve and having a crowd vote whether a proposal is meaningful or compelling. But we did not want 100&Change to turn into a popularity contest.
The second approach was the specialists’ panel model, where we would define a field of work and then identify experts to evaluate applications. There was a sense, however, that experts in a certain field tend to struggle with new ideas that come from outside of their discipline.
What we realized is crowds provide a way to take more risks and innovate. And the wisdom of experts is important. So, we decided to create a crowd of wise experts. We refer to them as our Wise Head Panel. We will randomly assign proposals to them and ask them to score proposals based on their broad knowledge. Each application that advances past Participatory Review will be reviewed by a minimum of five Wise Heads.
Since the inaugural round of 100&Change, we have worked with an evaluation panel of 699 Wise Heads, including thinkers, visionaries, and experts in fields that included education, public health, impact investing, technology, the sciences, the arts, and human rights.
We will ask them to use the scoring rubric to determine whether projects are impactful, evidence-based, feasible, durable, and just.
Results from Participatory Review will inform the selection of applicants that will move on to Wise Head Panel Review. Scores and feedback from Participatory Review will not be shared with the Wise Heads or publicly – only the 100&Change team and applicants will have access to their scores and feedback.
The Wise Heads will score criteria on a 1-5 scale, similar to the process during participatory review. We do not want to disadvantage a proposal that is assigned to a Wise Head who tends to give low scores or tip the scale in favor of a proposal that has a Wise Head who tends to score high. Scores will be statistically normalized to ensure that no matter which Wise Heads are assigned to an applicant, each proposal will be given equal consideration.
The scoring range definitions under each trait on the rubric are meant to be illustrative and are what we have described as, for example, at least a 4 and up to a 5. It is up to each reviewer to select the value—4.1, 4.8 and so forth—based on if they are scoring the applicant high or low within this range.
In the inaugural round of 100&Change, Sesame Workshop and International Rescue Committee were awarded $100 million in 2017 to educate young children displaced by conflict and persecution in the Syrian response region and to challenge the global system of humanitarian aid to focus more on building a foundation for future success for millions of young children.
In 2021, in the second round of 100&Change, the MacArthur Foundation announced a $100 million grant to Community Solutions to accelerate an end to homelessness in 75 U.S. communities in five years.
The application indicates which parts will be shared with peers and Wise Heads.
Lever for Change was born of the success of the MacArthur’s 100&Change competition, which awarded its first $100 million grant in 2017 and leveraged an additional $511 million to date in funding, thus spurring the philanthropic sector to rethink its approach to achieving impact at scale.
Founded in 2019 as a nonprofit affiliate of the MacArthur Foundation with the goal of driving $1 billion in philanthropic funding to bold solutions by 2023, Lever for Change has influenced more than $1.7 billion in awards and provided support to more than 175 organizations to date.
Lever for Change is dedicated to tackling the world’s biggest problems—including issues like racial inequity, gender inequality, lack of access to economic opportunity, and climate change. By matching donors with problem solvers—through customized challenges and tailored funding opportunities—Lever for Change helps to find and fund bold, effective solutions to accelerate social change.
What is unique about 100&Change is its focus on problems and their solutions, and the requirement that proposals address both. It is also unique because no single field or problem area is designated, unlike most prizes and challenges, and proposals from all sectors and anywhere in the world are encouraged.
Working with philanthropic and nonprofit partners and others, Lever for Change is creating new infrastructure to allow willing and interested funders to explore ideas excluded from consideration by “invite only” policies regarding proposals.
The openness and transparency of the 100&Change application process are also distinctive. Applicants know exactly what they are being scored on, and every applicant receives meaningful feedback on their proposal from our Wise Head Panel. The process provides vital feedback—and useful public visibility—to applicants, even if they do not ultimately receive the grant.
Registration confirmation. Once your registration form is complete, you will be able to access the rest of the platform, including the application and Forums. You will not receive an automated email. The lead organization and partners may register separately to access the online platform – please just be sure only the lead organization is submitting the application online.
Application confirmation. Be sure to preview your application ahead of submitting. Once you’re ready, submit your application and the status of your application will be reflected on the dashboard. You will not receive an automated email.
Browser. We find our platform works best using Chrome on a desktop or laptop computer. Download Chrome
Deadlines. We understand many applicants work on their applications outside of the platform. We strongly encourage applicants to begin completing the application online at least 1-2 weeks ahead of the deadline to allow enough time to enter all the responses and attachments. Our submission deadline is firm and we will not extend it to help ensure fairness for all our participants.
Once you start registration by entering your email, you’ll receive an email from questions@100andchange.org asking to verify your email address. Please check your spam if you don’t see this email and be sure to add questions@100andchange.org to your safe senders list or contacts to help make sure you receive important communications from us. This will include emails about upcoming deadlines and the required Participatory Review.
Once your email is verified, you can go to the platform to access the registration form. Once the registration form is complete, you will not receive an email confirmation. Instead, you’ll be able to access the online application form and Forums on the platform once you’ve successfully completed the registration process.
Please note: The registration and application forms must be submitted online – we will not accept emailed or mailed forms.
Applications do not need to be submitted by an authorized official – we do recommend that the person registering is a lead member of each respective team, and that the contacts listed are okay with receiving communications related to 100&Change. You may share login credentials as you need with fellow team members to collaborate on the online submission.
Please work with your organizational leadership as needed for any guidance as it relates to your participation in 100&Change and any key considerations should your team move on to later stages of the competition and enter into a separate agreement with MacArthur Foundation.
