CO-FUNDERS
A small co-funder cohort
Three to five foundations co-funding the 3-year horizon, ideally with overlapping geographic interest and complementary issue areas.
Catalytic capital for the public infrastructure the safety net keeps rebuilding one program at a time.
Zion is raising $5.5M in catalytic foundation funding over three years to build LP Account, a benefits and eligibility record that each household owns and controls, and to seat the Mission Trust that keeps it locked to that purpose. It serves the 56 million U.S. households (about 42%) that earn too much for most aid and too little to absorb a missed form or an expired document. Documentation built for program officers, not pitch decks.
01 · WHY THE FOUNDATION-TRACK ASK EXISTS
Some parts of this work shouldn’t run on a venture clock.
The core record layer, the Trust Advisory Board, and the accessibility standard have to hold up for decades, not just until the next funding round. Catalytic foundation capital lets us build them carefully, without the time pressure venture money creates.
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The core record layer, full build
LP Account v1 + v2: a single household record for identity, income, immigration, housing, health, learning, and benefits, plus the system that lets a household grant and revoke who can see each part, and a log of every time a record is shared.
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Trust governance
Mission Trust seating, TAB stipends, external counsel, public Charter amendment infrastructure.
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Accessibility & localization floor
WCAG 2.2 AA across the product, with the stricter AAA standard on benefits, documents, and care screens. Spanish translation. Pilot for two more languages.
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Field operations & co-design
Embedded community-facing leads in pilot markets. Member co-design sessions. Partner-org onboarding playbook.
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Impact research & reporting
Outcome categories, public dashboards, annual Impact Report, third-party evaluation partnership in Year 2.
02 · HOW IT FITS WITH THE VENTURE TRACK
Two tracks. One product roadmap. No conflict by design.
FOUNDATION CAPITAL
Funds the infrastructure layer.
Records primitive, Trust governance, accessibility floor, field co-design, impact reporting. Lives entirely under the Charter; no equity is issued against it.
3-YR HORIZON · CATALYTIC
VENTURE CAPITAL
Funds the commercial surface.
Paid OutPosts tiers for operators and funders. The Oasis platform where practitioners and community businesses earn. Endpoints cities and counties can adopt through normal purchasing. Earns commercial returns under PBC + Trust limits.
PRE-SEED · OPEN FOR DILIGENCE
A foundation funds the parts of the company that are public goods by nature. A venture investor funds the parts that earn revenue, under the same Charter limits. They don’t compete for the same dollars and they don’t compete for the same outcomes, they pay for different parts of one company.
03 · WHAT WE’RE LOOKING FOR FROM PROGRAM OFFICERS
Real diligence. Real partnership. No press-release deliverables.
ADVISORY
Trust Advisory Board seats
Foundation officers and the practitioners they fund are exactly the right cohort for the Trust Advisory Board. Funder-nominated TAB seats are part of the structure.
EVALUATION
A research evaluation partner
A Year-2 third-party evaluation partnership, built into the foundation budget, to validate the outcomes the Impact Report claims.
NEXT
Read the long-form. Then let’s talk.
The Foundation One-Pager and the Theory of Change are written for program officers. Nothing is gated.