If you've been thinking about applying, now is the time. Applications close on January 30, 2026. We're seeking innovators, organizers, worker-leaders, and technologists who are developing new ideas that shift power to working people.
American workers are facing an unprecedented wave of threats: the dismantling of labor protections, corporate monopolization, rising misinformation and wealth inequality, climate disasters, and more. Now, more than ever, it is time to protect workers, power worker-centered innovation, and prepare for what's ahead.
Our Innovation Fund Fellowship is focused on new ideas that shift power to working people. We're committed to investing in Innovators with new ideas who are building that future for and with workers.
Our Innovation Fund Fellowship offers:
- Up to $200,000 in funding
- A paid six-month fellowship with hands-on strategic and technical support, mentorship, peer learning, and community
- Access to worker networks and national visibility with partners, funders, and allies
For our Innovation Fund, we are especially interested in:
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Workers’ Rights & Power for Workers
- New ideas that defend and expand workers’ rights
- New ideas that navigate complex policy environments where protections for workers are disappearing
- New ideas that address the needs of immigrant, LGBTQ+, and rural workers, and others often left behind
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Economic Security & Ownership for Workers
- Ideas that build new ownership and wealth-building opportunities
- Ideas to reimagine worker classification, benefits, and protections—especially for gig, temp, and misclassified workers
- Ideas that create alternative models for workforce development, income security, health, and safety
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Worker-Centered Technology & Innovation
- New ideas that resist disinformation and digital threats that divide and disempower workers
- New ideas that protect and strengthen worker privacy, dignity, and agency in a tech-driven economy
- New ideas that leverage Gen AI to develop worker-centered solutions
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Unlike traditional investors, we are interested in:
- Ideas that update or transform systems and structures of work from old and exclusive ones to modern and inclusive ones
- Investing beyond solutions–in leaders with proximity to the problems
- Early-stage ideas and innovators who aren’t yet seen or supported by philanthropy or mainstream venture capital
- Centering workers as co-creators, leaders, and beneficiaries of every innovation we support
The solutions we need already exist in the minds and hands of workers, organizers, innovators, and entrepreneurs across the country. By investing in their ideas, we’re not only imagining a better future—we’re actively building one where work is fair, dignified, and inclusive for all.
If you're ready to build a new idea for and with workers, the time to apply is now. before applications close on January 30, 2026.
Missed our informational webinar? You can still watch the recording here.