Good News: TED's Audacious Project gives $1B to nonprofits working to solve 'humanity's biggest problems' | Good News Today

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Since 2018, The Audacious Project — an initiative of TED — has distributed over $4.6 billion to 70 projects that confront some of the world’s largest and most pressing challenges.

This year, a new cohort of grantees has been announced, with a total of $1.03 billion catalyzed to 10 nonprofits working across sectors, including medicine, climate action, economic development, and education.

The Audacious Project’s goal is to support bold ideas brought to the forefront by TED and is powered by a collaborative of donors, including MacKenzie Scott, Pivotal Ventures, ELMA Philanthropies, Reed Hastings and Patty Quillin, Skoll Foundation, Emerson Collective, Valhalla Foundation, and more.

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This year’s $1.03 billion investment is the largest to date.

“Daring ideas matter most when they become achievable,” Chris Anderson, founder of The Audacious Project and TED chairman, said in a statement.

“These grantees prove what’s possible when we come together to dream big, take risks, and build a more hopeful future.”

These are the newest grantees of The Audacious Project, along with the aims of their respective projects:

• 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 ed-tech learning solutions to reach students across Malawi, Sierra Leone, and Tanzania
• Ipas, led by Anu Kumar & 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

“This year’s cohort represents what happens when humanity’s toughest problems are met with courage. At such a time as this, it is also a declaration of what they imagine is still entirely possible,” Anna Verghese, the executive director of The Audacious Project, said in a statement.

“Whether they are charting paths to plastic‑free oceans, unlocking access to life-saving health services for women and girls globally, or harnessing AI to prevent disease, the breadth and depth of these interventions is awe-inducing. We’re humbled yet again by what the Audacious community makes possible.”

In addition to these 10 grantees, The Audacious Project is piloting a new Reinvestment program, which provides a secondary funding round to previous grantees that “demonstrated significant results” after their initial five-year funding period.

Three organizations will receive nearly $50 million from the Audacious donor community to continue scaling their work and sustaining their impact.

They include:

• Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team, 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

While the funding that comes directly from The Audacious Project is staggering, Audacious grantees have also leveraged an additional $3 billion from other funding sources, making the total investment in these projects $7.6 billion.

“Over the course of The Audacious Project, grantees have transformed educational systems worldwide, enrolling millions of girls in school, and have helped millions of people lift themselves out of ultra-poverty,” a press release about the latest cohort said.

“With support from The Audacious Project, projects have driven medical breakthroughs — developing the world's first computer-generated protein medicine, revolutionizing COVID-19 surveillance and response systems, and repurposing medicines to cure rare diseases,” the release continued.

“From developing the first whale language model to transforming how we track methane emissions, year after year, these projects redefine what is achievable in our world.”

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Header image by Jasmina Tomic / TED

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