Nonprofit Organizations Band Together to Create The Audacious Project

In a joint endeavor, nonprofit organizations, which include TED, Skoll Foundation, Virgin Unite, The Bridgespan Group, Dalio Foundation, The Elma Philanthropies, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the MacArthur Foundation, banded together to create The Audacious Project: Collaborative Philanthropy for Bold Ideas.

According to a press release, this project invites social entrepreneurs, nonprofits and individuals “to dream bigger than they have ever imagined—and to shape those dreams into multi-year plans that are viable and sustainable.” Every year, the project will recognize up to five innovative ideas that have an achievable path to execution, scale and impact. The ideas will be fully researched and approved before publicly announced at a special session at the annual TED Conference in Vancouver.

To date, project partners have raised over $250 million to help the power of the ideas, which will be unveiled at TED2018.

Here is what the project partners are saying about The Audacious Project:

"To crack the code on the world's most pressing problems, we need to bet big on entrepreneurs capable of both vision and action at scale. This new venture takes the signature TED mantra of ideas that matter to a whole new level—from ideas that matter to problems that can be solved." — Jeff Skoll, Founder and Chairman of the Skoll Foundation 

"We want to support extraordinary projects that will change millions of lives for the better. We know we are stronger together, so we are thrilled to work with TED, Skoll Foundation and a wonderful group of partners to catalyse The Audacious Project. Audacious is a brilliant way to unite individuals and foundations, no matter how big or how small, to tackle the world's most complex challenges and collaborate like never before. A big thanks to the teams leading these inspiring, hopeful Audacious projects to change the world." — Sir Richard Branson, Chairman of Virgin Unite

 "We are excited to support the big and bold ideas of social entrepreneurs committed to large-scale change. TED has created a superb model for identifying and sorting through game changing philanthropic shapers—people with big visions and the talents to make them into realities. It's really remarkable." — Ray Dalio, Founder of the Dalio Foundation

"The Audacious Project is an ambitious approach to addressing the most urgent challenges for the world's poorest people and the innovative entrepreneurs who want to help them. It's very exciting to see so many leaders in philanthropy join forces in this catalytic model." — Bill and Melinda Gates, Co-Chairs of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

"When we launched 100&Change, we hoped others would join us by making big bets and supporting solutions at scale—at a level far greater than what is typical in philanthropy. We see significant benefit in collaboration and believe The Audacious Project's complementary approach will inspire organizations to think big and believe solutions are possible." — Julia Stasch, President of the MacArthur Foundation

"The Audacious Project offers an unprecedented opportunity for ambitious social entrepreneurs and far-sighted philanthropists to collaborate effectively in pursuit of breakthrough results—for our communities and our planet." — Tom Tierney, Chairman and Co-Founder of the Bridgespan Group

To learn more about The Audacious Project, please click here.