Rise Prize – Up to $1.5M available for Economic Mobility and Well-Being of Student Parents (US)

The Rise Prize will make 14 awards totalling $1.5M to solutions driving economic mobility and well-being for student parents.

The Prize is created by Imaginable Futures—a venture of The Omidyar Group—and Lumina Foundation, along with a group of leading partner organizations, to leverage direct investments in innovative solutions supporting student parents.

They believe that postsecondary success for parents is crucial in improving educational outcomes for entire families and supporting the journeys of millions of families to economic mobility. They are also now facing unprecedented uncertainty as they adjust to new realities as a result of COVID-19. Student parents are among the most impacted by the global pandemic, facing childcare disruptions, and unpredictability at school and with work.

Benefits

By applying for the Rise Prize you could:

• Raise awareness of your solution and get exposure to funders and potential partners
• Strengthen your idea with support from mentors and build community with fellow innovators; and as a finalist, be paired with an advisor to sharpen your product pitch

What They’re Looking For?

Solutions that will have a direct impact on the postsecondary success of student parents—whether your solution is focused on these outcomes or others, they want to hear from you. Those solutions could include: flexible courseware, original outcomes-based financing solutions, innovative childcare support models, community building or completion coaching—any type of solution designed to accelerate student parent success.

• Childcare
  • Student parents do meaningfully better when there is access to quality, affordable childcare solutions.
• Community of Support
  • Student parents benefit from support services/mentoring, well-being, and access to social capital.
• Completion Time
  • Student parents need solutions that are competency-based and allow for completion faster or in more incremental ways.
• Convenience First
  • Student parents need solutions that are flexible and adapted to their “shredded time” schedule. This includes using virtual and online courses to enhance the learning environment, as well as a combination of virtual and in-person coaching to assist with persistence.
• Cost
  • Student parents require solutions that are affordable given other budget constraints with children.
• Credential/Connection to Career
  • Student parents need access to economic mobility through a credential and increased connection to their job/career. This includes programs that offer competency-based education focused on the skills and competencies that employers want and need.

Who Should Apply?

The Prize is open to impact-driven changemakers: companies, programs, and organizations of any type or stage in the US working on solutions directly supporting student parent postsecondary success. This includes changemakers who are seeking to add additional products or solutions to accelerate the success of student parents.

• Applicant Type
  • They welcome applicants working on innovative solutions to directly impact postsecondary success for student parents at scale, including:
    • Non-profit organizations
    • For-profit companies, including edtech solutions
    • Higher education institutions, including departments or teams within higher education institutions; academic institution associations; or alternative career pathways programs, including workforce programs, credentialing programs, and bootcamps
  • Equity and inclusion is a central theme of the Rise Prize. They strive to ensure that applicants of varying sizes, sectors, and backgrounds have an equal chance of success.
• Solution Type
  • The Rise Prize is designed to increase the number of innovative solutions driving postsecondary success for student parents. There will be three types of awards made through a single application process:
    • Early Stage
      • New ideas and solutions anchored in initial customer validation (user testing or pilots, market research, or a plan for customer validation).
      • This could include:
        • Pre-seed and seed startups that have developed a plan for customer validation and research
        • Established organizations exploring new ideas and solutions for student parents
        • Academic institutions and social ventures at testing or pilot phases
        • 8 winners from the early stage category will be awarded $50,000 each.
    • Mature Stage
      • Defined by solutions provided by organizations that have strong conviction about the business or organization’s ability to serve student parents and are looking to take that work to scale. For venture-backed startups, this means Series A and beyond.
      • These solutions should have:
        • Demonstrated product/market fit and strength of the market
        • Measured impact on customers or end users
        • 5 winners from the mature stage category will be awarded $200,000 each.
    • “RISERS’ Choice Prize”
      • Awarded to one winner in either the Early Stage or Mature Stage for $100,000 by the student parent judges.

For more information, visit Imaginable Futures.