A cohort is, in short, a small group of nonprofit organizations that have been selected by the Levine Impact Lab to take part in this unique program.

Through LIL's flagship capacity building program, cohorts participate in LIL for an 18-month period and receive tailored support throughout their engagement with the program.

LIL’s holistic program design includes comprehensive consulting and coaching opportunities at both the individual leadership and organizational level, unrestricted grant funding, invigorating in-person and virtual community-building events, cross-cohort networking, and access to a wide array of subject matter experts to tap into.

Peter Levine has drawn from best practices learned in venture capital investment and nonprofit capacity building and adapted a recipe for success that meets the needs of participating nonprofits. Support includes executive coaching, network-building, fundraising and marketing, recruiting and HR, business planning and strategic goal setting, board composition, and financial management. In addition, participating organizations receive unrestricted grant support to support their organization’s ongoing work.

The Lab will also connect cohort members to peers in the nonprofit space, ensuring that best practices in the nonprofit space are utilized and iterated upon to drive scalability and long-term impact.

The Lab’s goal is to provide both resources and tools needed to build durable, scalable, and maximally impactful organizations. Consultation, mentorship, skill building, and networking services will be the Lab’s core focus, and value.

Each year during their participation in the Lab, cohort members will receive unrestricted funding to bolster their organizational capacity and help them immediately implement ideas created and iterated upon during their time in the Lab.

LIL supports community-based nonprofits working in the climate and social justice space. LIL's grant partners are often working in their local communities to find solutions that address a combination of social, economic and environmental justice issues. Due to its collaborative and cohort-based design, we strive to have every cohort be made up of organizations and individuals that are eager to share their ideas and build towards more equitable, sustainable nonprofit organizations and justice movements.

LIL is unique in that it offers space to two leaders from each participating organization. Both leaders must commit to fully participating as co-leaders throughout the program, and one of these leaders must be the organization’s executive director or CEO.

The 18-month capacity building program provides participants with flexible levers of support that are adapted to fit each organization. This individualized approach is complemented by a variety of core components, for which each organization is expected to fully participate in.

A sample of participant commitments are as follows:

• Annual 4-5 day in-person retreat (2 total retreats over the 18 months)

• Quarterly cohort-wide virtual workshops and convenings

• Monthly strategic advising calls and biweekly consulting calls (3-4 hours a month)

• Internal planning and development work with your co-leader and team members back home (5-10 hours a month)

• Additional consulting, coaching, and capacity-building training (varies by need and interest)