Case Studies

January 27, 2026/Case Studies

Case Study: CommunityShare

CommunityShare ignites civic engagement and a passion for learning by activating the wisdom and lived experiences of educators, students, and community members. The organization connects PreK-12 educators with community partners—people in the community who can share their unique experiences, interests, and skills—to work on real-world projects that help students develop durable, transferable skills while bolstering student engagement, connection, and sense of belonging.

January 22, 2026/Case Studies

Case Study: The Maintainers

The Maintainers is a global research and practice network that focuses on maintenance, repair, care, and the mundane labor that keeps the world going. The Maintainers work within and across different disciplines, contexts, and physical locations. The Maintainers emerged from a 2016 conference that brought together academics to counter a dominant narrative of the twenty-first century: it was smart to invest in innovation and new-ness rather than support the crucial work of maintenance
and repair. In its first grant-funded phase, The Maintainers supported conferences, collaborative projects, fellowships, and free public programs for both practitioners and researchers. In 2025, The Maintainers transitioned to a distributed leadership model that continues to activate and nurture a network of maintainers.

October 27, 2025/Case Studies

ICA Case Study Series – Propagation: Choosing Propagation Over Scale or Replication

ICA has nurtured small businesses in the Bay Area through capital investment and mentoring for nearly thirty years. A central part of their approach is a form of impact investing that focuses on buying equity in promising companies rather than offering loans. As those businesses succeed, ICA creates pathways for the original owners to buy back that equity over time.

October 27, 2025/Case Studies

ICA Case Study Series – Policymakers: Creating Economic Growth and Thriving Small Businesses Through Equity Investing

ICA Fund is known as an innovator in the CDFI field because it extends patient, flexible capital on founder-friendly terms to the small businesses in which it invests. This approach is in contrast to most CDFIs, which typically offer small businesses loans rather than convertible notes or equity investment options that have extended, flexible repayment expectations aligned with the businesses growth. It’s also in contrast to venture funding, which typically focuses on high-growth businesses and expects a high rate of return over a short period of time.

October 27, 2025/Case Studies

ICA Case Study Series – Capital Markets: Prioritizing Social Impact Alongside Financial Returns

Since its founding, ICA Fund has invested in small businesses with the potential to positively impact their communities. It does so by supporting founders who often have a difficult time securing capital through traditional financing institutions.

Still, a noble mission isn’t enough to sustain and prove a financial model and theory of change. That’s why ICA Fund has turned its attention to answering three interrelated questions about its investment approach.

October 27, 2025/Case Studies

Introducing the ICA Fund Case Study Series

Building on our five-year partnership, we created this new series of case studies to spotlight ICA Fund’s work to shape a more inclusive economic system: one where entrepreneurs can access the capital and partnership they need to grow, where local economies thrive, and where quality jobs expand alongside profit. Each case study speaks to a core audience and a core belief: investors can generate both social impact and returns; business owners deserve capital designed for their success; policymakers can drive widespread economic growth by supporting equity investing that works for real people.

November 21, 2024/Case Studies, From Our Grantees

Building a Human-Centric Data Economy: Mozilla’s Data Futures Lab

Data Futures Lab, a project of the Mozilla Foundation, served as an experimental space for developing new approaches to data stewardship. Its goal was to build tools and communities designed to offer such better ways—ways that give greater control and agency to people. In so doing, the project sought to advance policies, approaches, and tools that prioritize data co-creation, ownership, and stewardship in ways that benefit a diverse and inclusive public. Read more in our capstone case study.

July 16, 2024/Case Studies, From Our Grantees

Case Study: #BlackTechFutures Research Institute

#BlackTechFutures Research Institute is building a national and global network of city-based researchers and practitioners focused on bolstering sustainable local Black tech ecosystems.

March 26, 2024/Case Studies, From Our Grantees

Incentivizing a Culture of Feedback Among Funders

The Feedback Incentives Learning Group is a group of funders and philanthropy support organizations dedicated to exploring ways to support nonprofits and motivate foundations to listen to and act on feedback from those at the heart of their work. At the heart of the learning group is the hypothesis that when stronger rewards for organizations that listen well are in place, thousands more nonprofits and funders will improve how they listen and respond to the people they serve.

March 19, 2024/Case Studies, From Our Grantees

Case Study: Computing Talent Initiative’s Accelerate Program

By developing capacity at institutions with untapped potential computing talent, investing in quality instruction and applied learning opportunities, and building bridges between this diverse group of computing students and industry, CTI provides a promising path for fostering socioeconomic diversity in a tech sector that often struggles to recruit diverse candidates.  

January 11, 2024/Big Ideas, Case Studies, From Our Grantees

Introducing Our BRIC Case Studies 

The Black River Innovation Campus (BRIC) in Springfield, Vermont, is a powerful example of community-driven innovation in a rural community that has been impacted by the departure of manufacturing operations and jobs that once centered the local economy. Our case studies explore three key elements of BRIC’s approach: support for emerging tech entrepreneurs; connections with the local community; and partnerships with local and national organizations and institutions.