TED’s Audacious Project raised $1B from donors in 2 days to fund big nonprofit initiatives

Thirty-five major donor families committed a staggering $1.03 billion to more than a dozen nonprofits last October as part of The Audacious Project, a collaborative philanthropy initiative housed at TED. The organization announced the recipients Tuesday, following an extensive selection process that helped nonprofits refine ambitious, multi-year projects addressing significant global challenges.

The scale of this funding stands out in the philanthropic landscape, where such large-scale collaborative giving remains uncommon. For organizations like Destination: Home, which received full funding to expand its homeless prevention services nationally, the experience was transformative.

“It’s not for the faint of heart to work on this issue in America,” said Jennifer Loving, CEO of the San Jose-based organization. “You never know if people are going to see what you see and it was beautiful. It was really beautiful.”

The Audacious Project’s unique approach brings together philanthropists willing to commit at least $10 million each, though many donate substantially more after witnessing the commitments of others. The in-person gathering creates a powerful dynamic where collaborative decision-making leads to unprecedented funding levels.

Connie Ballmer, who cofounded Ballmer Group with her husband Steve Ballmer, former Microsoft CEO and current owner of the Los Angeles Clippers, has participated since 2021. She emphasized the extraordinary efficiency of the model: “Nowhere that I know of can you raise a billion dollars in two days. For an organization to raise an amount — whether it’s $40, $60, $80 million, I mean, do you know how long that takes them to do that kind of fundraising?”

Among this year’s notable grantees is the Arc Institute, a relatively new California-based research organization developing a virtual cell model aimed at identifying treatments for complex conditions like Alzheimer’s disease. Tiko, an Africa-based nonprofit focused on providing teenage girls with contraception, HIV services, and sexual violence responses, secured funding on its third application attempt.

“Going through this process was probably one of the most rigorous things we’ve ever done,” Loving said about the application process, which includes recording presentations similar to TED Talks. “I can say with total confidence that it made us smarter.”

For Destination: Home’s Right at Home initiative, the funding will support an innovative approach that identifies families at risk of losing housing and provides financial support and services before homelessness occurs. Rather than expanding their own operations, they’ll partner with local organizations and conduct research to measure impact—exemplifying The Audacious Project’s emphasis on scalable solutions.

This year marked a milestone as The Audacious Project made second-round grants for the first time. Last Mile Health, which used its initial 2018 grant to expand community health worker training from 2,000 to 23,000 workers across multiple African countries, received $20 million to further scale their programs and develop sustainable domestic funding mechanisms.

“It’s not just a philanthropic investment and then a cliff,” explained Lisha McCormick, CEO of Last Mile Health. The new funding will help restructure how governments support public health systems, particularly important following significant cuts to U.S. foreign aid that previously constituted substantial portions of some countries’ health budgets.

Anna Verghese, executive director of The Audacious Project, said the decision to provide second-round funding came after careful consideration: “The honest question that we and our donor community had to wrestle with is, what kinds of partners are we if we walk away right when that momentum is building?”

To date, 55 donor families have participated in The Audacious Project. Tegan Acton, who cofounded Wildcard Giving with her husband Brian Acton, a WhatsApp cofounder, appreciates the collaborative model and the diversity of donor approaches. “Some people come and they have a binder printed and they have a thousand tabs with little notes about every project,” she observed, while others “show up and watch the videos and see what sparks interest.”

Other organizations receiving funding include Braven, Imagine Worldwide, Ipas, Plastic Solutions Fund, Pure Earth, Solutions for Our Climate, The Ocean Cleanup, Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team and Thorn—each addressing significant global challenges with innovative, scalable solutions.