CEL Education Fund is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt public charity with the mission of empowering tech-savvy people-powered organizing initiatives.

Nothing happens without people power, and they have got some great people. Their team is a bright, dedicated, and diverse group of leaders in their own respective fields that do the heavy lifting behind- the scenes work to make CEL Education Fund run … fast and strong.

Social change can happen faster than people think.

Every second, the world becomes more connected than ever before. Modern communications technology is revolutionizing the way people reach out to each other, work together, and share messages and ideas. At CEL Education Fund, they invest in new leaders, tools, and strategies that help individuals and organizations harness the power of these technologies to shift culture and transform society.

The efforts that they support use technology and digital media to keep the public informed about how key institutions like government, corporations, and the media are affecting their lives. By providing opportunities for people to become informed and then act on their individual and collective concerns, their projects inspire and create real societal change.

CEL Education Fund supports Citizen Engagement Laboratory and other nonprofits that align with their mission by incubating high-impact, tech-savvy programs, and by making strategic, restricted grants. They focus their work on the following areas:

1. Powerful Communities Program & Fiscal Sponsorship

When people with a shared purpose come together to act collectively, they can literally change the world.

CEL Education Fund helps accelerate that process through their Powerful Communities program, which supports leaders who have the passion for making change, the knack for bringing people together in action, and the capacity for building effective organizations. Using a combination of coaching and direct services, they help them help their communities achieve near-term impact and build longstanding power.

For projects with more focused needs, they offer several models of fiscal sponsorship. They give funders the confidence they need to make early investments in ideas while providing a ladder of support to give leaders access to robust infrastructure support as their ideas and organizations take shape.

CEL Education Fund incubates organizations at various stages of development, from nascent idea to established entity. But wherever they start, they help them grow bigger, stronger, and (of course) faster.

2. Innovation

Whether it means developing a new tool or bringing a time-tested idea to a new environment, CEL Education Fund recognizes the need to experiment and evolve them social change strategies.

As a social change lab, their staff and project leads work to identify gaps in their fields, chart new courses, build and test new tools and tactics – learning and sharing valuable lessons in the process. That’s innovation, and it’s a part of their DNA.

3. Collaboration

The groups CEL Education Fund works with recognize that most challenges their communities face are too big to fight alone.

CEL Education Fund helps overcome these obstacles by bringing together groups from across the field to share information, identify best practices, test innovations, and work together to win campaigns that could never be won alone. Through collaboration, groups not only gain near-term allies and ideas, they also build long-lasting ties that help them engage more people in deeper ways.