By the numbers

Investments

Our 2020 portfolio is an investment in the future of the progressive movement. These outstanding leaders are developing infrastructure, building Black and Indigenous power, protecting our democracy, and transforming the local media landscape.

We invest in innovative approaches to change, building power for the long term.


Learn more about our investment criteria

The Juggernaut

The Juggernaut is a media company and community that centers South Asian stories, which is especially important considering this year's election results and since U.S. newsrooms currently do not reflect America's diversity. The Juggernaut’s mission is to diversify storytelling and to report with depth, nuance, and context to deliver reporting you won’t see anywhere else.

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Founder & CEO: Snigdha Sur

We are so excited to be part of the NMV network because NMV has, for a long time, used capital to effect change and shift power. We’re excited to tell new stories, engage new communities, and spark new ideas.

— Snigdha Sur

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SmokeSygnals

SmokeSygnals develops museum and event attractions that explore history from the perspectives and voices of minority populations. Their work is designed to challenge ideological absolutes – civility and savagery and freedom and tyranny – by moving the marginalized stories of Native Americans and other groups from the shadow and into the light.

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Leaders: Steven Peters – Creative Director; Paula Peters – Partner; Jennifer Peters – Business Manager

This investment is critical to the growth of our company and our ability to realize our mission. NMV has extended a life line during a world-wide pandemic, ensuring that we can adapt our work and reach a wider audience.

— Steven Peters

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"We can't afford to be complacent. We must act now to prevent another Trump in 2024."


Read more from NMV's President, Taren Stinebrickner-Kauffman

Project Truth, Reconciliation, and Reparations

Project Truth, Reconciliation, and Reparations is a Black and Indigenous-led effort to build an intersectional mass-movement to reckon with America’s past, redistribute wealth and power to those robbed by white supremacy, and transform this country into a truly multiracial democracy.

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Co-founder and Coordiation Lead: Nicole Carty; Coordination Leads: Paige Ingram, Anthony Torres, Adiel Pollydore; Core Team Leaders: Heather Cronk, Genai Lewis, Stephen Malloy Bracket, Jade Begay, Ilana Lerman, Shawn Sebastian, Gregory Cendana, Ian Madrigal

The demand for a broad-based movement to heal our national wounds and steer our country into a reconciled future has never been greater. This investment will allow our team to rally the grassroots to directly attack the roots of our inequalities and move us forward into an America where everyone can belong.

— Nicole Carty

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Indiegraf

Indiegraf is a platform for independent journalists and local news publishers – an engine that drives publishers’ audience and revenue growth so they can focus on providing meaningful journalism. Indiegraf contributes to a healthier and more equitable democracy by ensuring that everyone has access to quality local news, which makes people more likely to vote, volunteer, run for office, trust their neighbors, and can even help slow the spread of infectious diseases.

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Co-founders: Erin Millar – CEO; Caitlin Havlak – CTO

Communities that have long been underrepresented in the news are disproportionately impacted by the collapse of traditional local newspapers. NMV’s backing will help us bring meaningful local news to the thousands of news deserts across the U.S.

— Erin Millar

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TILA Studios

TILA Studios works to increase representation in museum and gallery spaces because only 4% of art in galleries and museums across the U.S. is from black women artists. By building a powerful network, connecting artists to resources, providing accessible studio space, and creating cutting-edge exhibitions, TILA is creating paid job opportunities for black women artists.


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Leaders: Tiffany LaTrice – Founder and Executive Director; Sierra King – Community Manager

As Black Creativity continues to be our saving grace during a time of political, economic and social upheaval, it’s refreshing to have an investment firm find value in our work and understand its economic and social impact.

— Tiffany LaTrice

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Our unique blended capital model allows us to invest in the most impactful work regardless of fiscal structure.


Learn more about our flexible fund

Momentum

Momentum is a training institute and movement incubator seeding a wave of movements capable of setting a political agenda equal to the challenges we’re facing. They believe social movements are necessary for people to realize their true power and generate the political will to win a long-term vision of justice.

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Leadership: Momentum is led by a team of majority BIPOC trainers, coaches, and movement strategists who represent some of the most impacted issues and regions across the U.S.

We’re so grateful to NMV for joining us in supporting the organizers most impacted by the status quo to develop the offensive, long-term movement strategies that will propel us into the future.

— Maria Fernanda Cabello, Coaching Director

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RAHEEM

As the independent service for reporting police in the United States, Raheem is working to end police terror against Black people by making police behavior visible and accountable. Their digital tools help communities report and track police and use the open data to advance policies that shrink the role of police and invest in alternatives that respond to conflict with care.

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Executive Director: Brandon Anderson

Ending police terror is one of the biggest challenges facing our democracy, and our work would not be possible without the support of organizations like NMV, especially in the age of COVID-19.

— Brandon Anderson

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Rapid Response

Rapid Response helps nonprofits and grassroots groups quickly create hotlines and texting services to provide information and support to communities in need. Rapid Response brings hotline management, mass notifications, peer-to-peer texting, and an ultra-light CRM into one integrated platform.

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Co-founder and Executive Director: Alicia Nieves

A growing number of groups rely on us to operate mutual aid and volunteer efforts to provide COVID-19 related support to communities. This investment will allow us to increase our capacity at an important moment.

— Alicia Nieves

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Algorithmic Justice League

The Algorithmic Justice League is leading a cultural movement towards equitable and accountable AI. Through a combination of art, research, policy guidance, and media advocacy, the Algorithmic Justice League empowers communities and decision makers to mitigate the harms and biases of AI.

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Founder and Poet of Code: Joy Buolamwini

As AI systems infiltrate our healthcare, education, employment, and law enforcement, social justice must include algorithmic justice. NMV funding provides us much needed fuel to battle on this emerging frontier for civil rights.

— Joy Buolamwini

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Innovation in the political sector can take years to scale. That's why investing early is key.


Read about how our past investments paid off in the 2020 election

Three Point Strategies

Three Point Strategies is the Electoral Firm of the Movement. They help architect transformative change through protest, electoral politics, personal narrative, and building new centers of power with, for, and alongside Black strategists. Their unapologetic love for progressive Black Women and Black Movement leaders in the country is translating to winning big, audacious victories.

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Leaders: Jessica Byrd – Founding Partner; Kara Hollingsworth – Partner; Naomi Long – Partner

We’ve spent the last five years on the cutting edge of electoral justice. This investment from NMV means we will be able to expand our work, dismantle the structures that obstruct justice, and build bold Black political power.

— Jessica Byrd

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Climate Cabinet Action Fund

Climate Cabinet Action Fund helps decision-makers run, win, and legislate on the climate crisis. They leverage technology and networks to proactively deliver climate solutions to political candidates, legislators, and advocates – at scale.

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Leaders: Caroline Spears – Founder and Executive Director; Emma Fisher – Head of Strategy; Shelby Green – Software Engineer

Every state needs to pass bold climate policy within the next 10 years. And in 2020, it’s clear that climate is a winning political issue. We’re so thrilled to have NMV’s support as we scale up to make the most of this moment.

— Caroline Spears

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OpenField

OpenField helps communities connect with anyone, anywhere, and build power, one conversation at a time. Their comprehensive organizing toolkit enables organizations to launch distributed phone banks, canvasses, and remotely register voters, all from a single interface.

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Co-founders: Arianna Trujillo Wesler and Emily Del Beccaro

With NMV’s support we’ll be able to facilitate transformational organizing, build long term power, and fulfill the promise of American democracy.

— Ari Trujillo Wesler

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Deck

Deck tells progressive campaigns who to reach and how to win. It makes accurate predictions of which voters are likely to be supportive, turn out to vote, be open to persuasion, and more. Deck then helps candidates make and execute a plan for using those predictions to win.

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CEO: Max Wood

We’ve built a product that’s easy to use and helps campaigns without big budgets run very sophisticated, data-driven programs. NMV’s support helped us find a business model that could offer that kind of support at a huge scale.

— Max Wood

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The progressive movement has the opportunity to emerge from this pandemic stronger than ever before – if we invest now.


Read about how to maximize impact in a crisis

NMV Investment Team

We have evaluated thousands of startups over the last decade, giving us a unique perspective on drivers of success in the field. We’re looking for the right mix of vision, persistence, and execution ability.

Investment Committee

Every year we recruit members of our community to join the NMV investment committee. These experts from across the fields of technology, social justice, media, philanthropy, investment, and government complement the NMV team’s expertise, help us surface critical information during the interview process, and ensure that we're evaluating the startups in our applicant pool rigorously and efficiently.

Apply for Funding

We host open investment processes for early-stage startups seeking funding via our Innovation Fund. The most successful applications are beyond the idea phase. We have a simple set of criteria for those we fund.

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Invest with Us

We have many ways for investors to get involved. We’d love to hear from you.

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