Announcing the First Act Fund
A new source of early risk capital and support for early-stage doers, supported by Schmidt Futures
Today, Coding it Forward announced the First Act Fund—with support from Schmidt Futures.
Both our teams know that young people are inclined to think big and think differently — and we’ve seen this in action already with the Civic Digital Fellowship and Build programs. Yet, there are still not enough opportunities for young people with technical capabilities to pursue bold ideas that have the potential to benefit humanity on a local, national, or global level — which is why we’re launching the First Act Fund, a new source of early risk capital and support for early-stage doers.
With this new initiative, we hope to encourage young people with technical backgrounds to pursue their most ambitious and atypical ideas with early investments of up to $10,000. In doing so, we plan to help young people raise their levels of aspiration, realize their visions, and bring their big ideas to life to create significant long-term returns for individuals and society.
Our team knows firsthand the value of early-stage seed funding, having benefited immensely from two small votes of confidence in our first few months: a Shuttleworth Foundation flash grant from Seamus Kraft and the Gov 2.0 Grant from the Institute of Politics at Harvard Kennedy School. Without those two grants, which totaled $10,000, Coding it Forward may have never gotten off the ground.
But we did, and now we’re incredibly fortunate to be in a position where we’re able to pay it forward to more students with big ideas.
While we’ve already engaged thousands of students in the past two years with the Civic Digital Fellowship, Build, and our Pivot to Civic jobs and internships newsletter, today’s launch of the First Act Fund in another concrete step in the right direction.
We’ll continue to expand our programs and opportunities until every young person who wishes to code, design, or build for social good is able to do so.
