New Sun Rising provides strategic programs, vital services, and accessible funding to power civic innovation from idea to impact.

Although social and economic inequities persisted prior to COVID-19, the extent of these differences and their impact on the quality of life of vulnerable populations has been elevated during the pandemic. Nonprofits and small businesses continue to operate on the front line of these challenges. Not only are they expected to meet the urgent, critical needs of their community – but they also must consider their role in developing a more just, equitable future.

New Sun Rising believes that equity and vibrancy in our ecosystems is best achieved through a triple-bottom line approach to community economic development: Strengthening Culture, Promoting Environmental Sustainability, and Creating Economic Opportunity.  By utilizing our strengths in capacity building and providing accessible funding, New Sun Rising can help organizations, collaboratives, communities, and philanthropic partners to develop resilience and organize during this time of transition.

VIBRANT COMMUNITIES FRAMEWORK

Since 2005, New Sun Rising has supported communities to organize their resources and build capacity towards shared goals.  Through over a decade of practical experience running these social experiments we realize that far too often, community economic development initiatives are planned and implemented without respect to the development stage – or readiness – of the people who make up the community itself.  In order to establish a replicable and scalable field of practice, NSR identified 18 best practice strategies designed to build community power across three phases of development: Ignite, Launch, and Grow. The Vibrant Communities Framework is now being used by a diverse and growing set of community leaders to strengthen connectivity and inspire a commitment towards action.

Learn about the Vibrant Communities Framework

CAPACITY BUILDING

The people most affected by the challenges of our time – poverty, climate change, education – are also expected to create solutions using the least amount of available resources. This burden can be spun into opportunity when organizations build their own capacity to both lead and benefit from the changes they wish to see.  New Sun Rising provides capacity building to over 150 leaders annually through cohort programs, professional support services, and fiscal sponsorship. We take a wholistic and human centered approach by meeting people where they are at, understanding each leader’s definition of success, and recognizing the relationship between staff and organizational wellbeing. NSR utilizes the Organizational Assessment Tool (OAT) survey to identify weaknesses and guide strategies to improve them within the domains of Planning, Resources, Connectivity, and Identity.

ACCESSIBLE FUNDING

Many nonprofits, small businesses, and collaboratives lack the financial capital necessary to ignite, launch, and grow their impact: especially those who are representative of – or serve – disinvested communities. To make funding more accessible, New Sun Rising administers the Vibrancy Funds: an integrated capital program which utilizes grants, loans, awards, equity, credit enhancement, and technical assistance. Since 2009, NSR has invested over $6.5 million to make progress on achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. Learn more about our underwriting framework and history of investment here.

View the Vibrancy Funds Dashboard

POWER IN NUMBERS

Sectors including the for profit market have shown that you can scale impact by utilizing data and building mutually beneficial relationships with other organizations.  While research has demonstrated that social sector leaders who prioritize data have stronger operations and outcomes, our own Nonprofit Data Collection & Evaluation Survey uncovered just how challenging it is for them to put this theory into practice.  Based on this need, New Sun Rising developed Enterprise Data Management (EDM) technology to help individual organizations and portfolios to collect, analyze, report, and collaborate using data organized by the common language of the Sustainable Development Goals. The Power in Numbers initiative integrates data science and storytelling advocacy to promote collective impact regardless of sector, size, or geography.

Explore the Vibrancy Index