What The Elevate Prize Foundation does

The Elevate Prize Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded in 2019 by businessman and philanthropist Joseph Deitch, headquartered in Miami, Florida. The foundation identifies and supports global social impact leaders, providing each of its ten annual winners with $300,000 in unrestricted funding ($250,000 to the winning organization plus $50,000 for personal wellbeing under its 'Whole Leader' philosophy), alongside a two-year program of storytelling training, organizational support, and media amplification. Winners are selected across diverse issue areas including migrant rights, school nutrition, AI for legal access, mental health, forest protection, girls' education, caregiving, affordable housing, digital work, and economic opportunity, spanning geographies from the United States to Afghanistan, Kenya, and India.

The foundation's product portfolio extends beyond the flagship Elevate Prize to include Elevate Studios (an in-house production house producing the 'Nevertheless' docuseries and 'The Whole Point' podcast), the monthly GET LOUD Award ($25,000 grants to community-based organizations), the Catalyst Award ($250,000 to prominent influencers such as Kerry Washington and Sesame Street), the Founder's Award, the annual Make Good Famous Summit, and Elevate Cities (a community development initiative for families with children ages 0–8, expanding from Detroit into Philadelphia, Cleveland, and Chicago by 2027).

The revenue model is philanthropic: the foundation is funded by donations, grants, and founder philanthropy, and deploys capital as unrestricted grants to winners rather than earning revenue from customers. Distribution occurs through annual nomination cycles, celebrity and media partnerships (TIME, AP News, Variety, Essence, NASDAQ Times Square billboards), and the owned content ecosystem of Elevate Studios. Leadership is provided by CEO Carolina García Jayaram, formerly CEO of the National Young Arts Foundation and President & CEO of United States Artists.

Name

The Elevate Prize Foundation

Legal name

The Elevate Prize Foundation, Inc.

Website

https://elevateprize.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2019

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

The Elevate Prize Foundation is a Miami-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit that awards $300,000 in unrestricted funding annually to ten global social impact leaders and amplifies their work through owned media production, content distribution, and mainstream PR partnerships.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Social impact philanthropy and nonprofit grantmaking

NAICS

Grantmaking Foundations (813211), Grantmaking and Giving Services (8132)

akta.pro primary industry

Education Grantmaking Foundations (BPAGAKAK)

akta.pro secondary industry

Environmental & Climate Grantmaking Foundations (BPAGAKAM)

Keywords

• Social impact philanthropy
• Nonprofit grantmaking
• Changemaker awards program
• Storytelling media production
• Unrestricted funding grants

Headquarters

HQ city

Miami

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Marketing or Sales, Operations, Technology or R&D, Others

Revenue model

1. Foundation Funding and Grants: The Elevate Prize Foundation operates as a nonprofit that awards grants to social impact leaders. Funding comes from philanthropy and donors, distributed as prizes to winners ($250,000 to organizations + $50,000 to individual leaders).

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

The Elevate Prize Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that awards unrestricted cash grants and visibility-amplification support to social impact leaders globally. It runs the annual Elevate Prize ($300,000 to each of 10 winners), the monthly GET LOUD Award ($25,000), the Catalyst Award ($250,000 to high-profile influencers), and the Founder's Award, and operates Elevate Studios, an in-house production house that produces the Nevertheless docuseries and The Whole Point podcast to amplify winners' stories.

Product overview

The Elevate Prize Foundation is a global nonprofit on a mission to 'Make Good Famous.' It operates a platform-plus-programs architecture centered on The Elevate Prize (an annual award program), Elevate Studios (its strategic storytelling arm), and multiple award programs including the GET LOUD Award (monthly $25,000 grant), Catalyst Award ($250,000 for prominent influencers), and Founder's Award. The foundation also hosts the Make Good Famous Summit annually. These programs are unified by the Elevate Studios production house, which creates docuseries (Nevertheless), podcasts (The Whole Point), and other media content to amplify changemakers' visibility. Winners receive $300,000 in unrestricted funding plus storytelling training and organizational support.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• The Elevate Prize: Annual award program recognizing ten best-in-class social impact leaders driving transformative change across issue areas around the world, providing $250,000 to organizations plus $50,000 to individual leaders.
• Elevate Studios
• Elevate Prize GET LOUD Award
• Elevate Prize Catalyst Award
• Make Good Famous Summit
• Elevate Cities

Products and services

• The Elevate Prize Annual award program recognizing 10 best-in-class social impact leaders globally; each winner receives $300,000 in unrestricted funding ($250,000 to the organization + $50,000 personal 'Whole Leader' wellbeing stipend) plus a two-year program of organizational training and storytelling support.
• Elevate Prize GET LOUD Award Monthly $25,000 unrestricted grant program fueling community-based organizations on the frontlines of society's most pressing challenges; recipients are nominated via social media and selected by the foundation.

Quantifiable outcome

• 100% of winners increased fundraising after receiving the Elevate Prize
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers10 records

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature2 records

Partnerships

Five partnerships are on record, tiered flagship and core.

• Kerry WashingtonflagshipGTM or Marketing Partner · 23 January 2026Kerry Washington received the Elevate Prize Catalyst Award at Sundance and joined as Executive Producer for Elevate Studios' Nevertheless: Democracy Defenders docuseries. She is recognized for using storytelling to support democracy.
• Sesame StreetflagshipGTM or Marketing Partner · 15 May 2025Sesame Street characters (Elmo, Abby Cadabby, Bert, Ernie) received the 2025 Elevate Prize Catalyst Award, celebrating their cultural impact and educational mission. Partnership amplifies visibility for social good.
• NASDAQ / Times SquarecoreGTM or Marketing Partner'Good Is Trending' initiative featuring takeover of NASDAQ's Times Square billboards to spotlight Elevate Prize winners' causes and amplify their visibility as 'a form of protection' amid political headwinds.
• Elevate StudioscoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerStrategic arm of the foundation creating an ecosystem for stories that entertain and inspire. Produces the Nevertheless docuseries and The Whole Point podcast featuring changemakers.
• TIMEcoreGTM or Marketing PartnerElevate CEO Carolina García Jayaram co-authored a TIME op-ed on philanthropy courage, amplifying foundation messaging to mainstream audiences.

Scale indicators7 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Skoll Foundation: Major philanthropy funding social entrepreneurs with multi-year grants and an explicit storytelling/amplification platform (Skoll World Forum, Skoll films). The structural combination of unrestricted capital to changemakers plus ecosystem convenings maps closely to Elevate Prize's dual funding-plus-visibility model.
• Ashoka: World's largest network for social entrepreneurs, providing long-term stipends, peer support, and recognition to leading changemakers. Operates a similar cohort-based, multi-year support model for individual social impact leaders, though at considerably greater scale than Elevate.
• Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship: Recognizes social entrepreneurs globally and provides visibility through the World Economic Forum and peer-network convenings. Overlaps directly with Elevate Prize's combination of individual-leader recognition, multi-year support, and mainstream-platform amplification.
• Echoing Green: Provides two-year fellowships and seed funding to emerging social entrepreneurs worldwide. Closely comparable cohort-based, individual-leader grantmaking model with similar award sizing, networking support, and identification of high-potential changemakers.
• The Audacious Project: A curatorial giving vehicle backed by TED that funds bold, multi-year social impact initiatives and embeds each grantee in a high-visibility storytelling and donor-mobilization process — the most direct comparison to Elevate's big-grant-plus-mainstream-media amplification thesis.
• CNN Heroes: Long-running recognition platform that surfaces everyday changemakers to mainstream audiences, explicitly referenced in Elevate Prize's site navigation. Closely comparable visibility-for-changemaker mandate, though run by a media company rather than a foundation.

Broad incumbents

• MacArthur Foundation: Major U.S. foundation running the 100&Change competition (a multi-million-dollar prize), broader grantmaking across social impact areas, and a significant corpus. Operates in the same philanthropic space at much greater scale with overlapping prize-plus-amplification mechanics.
• Ford Foundation: One of the largest U.S. philanthropies, funding social justice, economic fairness, and education globally with $600M+ in annual grants. Overlaps heavily with Elevate's funded-issue portfolio (rights, education, equity) but at substantially greater scale and without a prize-amplification layer.
• Omidyar Network: Philanthropy and impact-investing firm addressing similar social issues to Elevate's winners (rights, governance, economic opportunity). Operates a much broader portfolio and uses investment vehicles alongside grants, making it an adjacent incumbent rather than a direct peer.

Others

• Participant: For-profit entertainment company producing narrative films and series explicitly designed to drive social impact. Closely mirrors Elevate Studios' storytelling-for-impact arm at greater commercial scale, serving as adjacent ecosystem participant rather than grantmaking competitor.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks4 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/@elevateprize
• Instagraminstagram.com/elevateprize
• Xx.com/ElevatePrize
• Facebookfacebook.com/ElevatePrize
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/elevateprize

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Subsidiaries2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about The Elevate Prize Foundation