New Rising Ventures

What it reported doing in 2025

In 2025, new rising ventures continued to build strong momentum across our responsible ai and latine voices for democracy initiatives, while deepening our focus on internal culture and operational sustainability. Latine voices for democracy (lv4d) is the first u.s.-based accelerator of its kind delivered bilingually and focused on latine-led news organizations and content creators. It is designed to strengthen local information ecosystems, advance nonpartisan civic education, support community-serving journalism, and empower trusted latine-led organizations to combat misinformation and foster civic engagement. In 2025, we expanded lv4d by launching a second accelerator cohort, bringing creators and local newsrooms together as equal partners in informing the public and encouraging civic participation. Over seven months, participants receive targeted mentorship, training, and partnership support from mission-aligned technology and media organizations to deepen their community engagement, storytelling, and audience-building capacity, as well as capital, technical tools, and training on capital structure and impact measurement to support their long-term sustainability. A major milestone was the launch of our responsible ai funding cycle under the rising fund, underscoring both the strength of the applicant pool and our commitment to backing high-impact organizations at the intersection of technology, democracy, and social good. We also made targeted investments in organizational capacity during the 2025 tax year, hiring and onboarding a director of fundraising to sharpen our development strategy and external engagement, and transitioning to a new accounting firm to support long-term financial stability and operational rigor. Throughout the year, we convened multiple funder briefings and in-person gatherings to deepen engagement, share learnings, and build alignment with our funding partners. Portfolio support remained a core priority, as we continued to back early- stage, nonpartisan entrepreneurs and activists transforming our democracy through innovation. Our team met with more than 50 founders over the course of the year, providing tailored guidance on fundraising, pitch and deck development, strategic positioning, and organizational transitions, and connecting them to more than 70 funding opportunities. This was also a year of experimentation for our portfolio support program, including a pilot of peer cohorts focused on community-building, where founders explored topics such as finding product-market fit, navigating acquisitions, and selecting the right hr tools. We launched three new ongoing peer cohorts with existing portfolio organizationsbuilding & scaling (for for-profit founders), people operations, and community supportthat meet quarterly to provide structured peer learning and strategic support, with founder-driven agendas and facilitated guidance where needed. We continued to engage our angel supporter network on a quarterly basis through a refreshed outreach strategy, while spotlighting and sharing updates on our portfolio organizations. As part of our programmatic work, we also hosted a series of conveningsincluding participation in la tech weekwhere we co-hosted the second annual changemaker film showcase with the michael latt legacy fund, celebrating underrepresented filmmakers driving social change and advancing innovative media and technology solutions for a more inclusive and resilient democracy. We also expanded our communications and thought leadership. We launched an nrv substack to share updates, research, and ecosystem insights, including the launch announcement for the rising fund and our 2025 responsible ai cohort, as well as analytic pieces such as responsible ai investment cycle 2025: insights & emerging trends, evaluating responsible ai: how purpose, people, and progress drive technology for good, and building ai for the public good: preliminary insights from our responsible ai pipeline, which togeth

Financial Efficiency

• Mission deployment rate: 83.6%; rating input score 84
• Program expense ratio: 63.4%; rating input score 63
• Fundraising efficiency: $3.09 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 9; 9th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

• Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
• Pay-setting controls: 1 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 17
  • Compensation committee: Missing
  • Independent consultant: Missing
  • Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
  • Written employment contract: Missing
  • Compensation survey or study: Missing
  • Board or committee approval: Pass
• Foreign activity oversight: Limited
• Grant itemization coverage: Limited
• Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
• Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

• Independent voting board: 83.3%; rating input score 83; 22nd percentile among comparable filings
• Governance controls: 6 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 75
  • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
  • Whistleblower policy: Pass
  • Document-retention policy: Pass
  • CEO compensation review process: Pass
  • Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
  • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
  • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
  • Audit committee oversight: Missing
  • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

• Operating margin: -31.8%; rating input score 4; 4th percentile among comparable filings
• Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.22; rating input score 11; 11th percentile among comparable filings
• Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.4; rating input score 15; 15th percentile among comparable filings
• Officer compensation ratio: 32.8%; rating input score 6; 6th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

• Program expense growth: 199.9% per year; rating input score 100; 100th percentile among comparable filings
• Revenue growth: 67.8% per year; rating input score 100; 97th percentile among comparable filings
• Asset growth: -65.8% per year; rating input score 0; 0th percentile among comparable filings