Last year, our social impact startup hit a milestone that eludes 96 percent of female founders: we hit one million dollars in revenue. It felt like reaching the summit of a mountain nearly everybody had said would be impossible to climb.

We started NeedsList with the idea of creating a “wedding registry for aid”—a software solution to match needs to resources in times of crisis. We envisioned the company to be more than just a tech startup—our ambitions were to help repair our failing humanitarian aid system, which is slipping further and further behind in its ability to provide resources to communities with every additional crisis.

In our first six years we succeeded not only in raising venture funding but also in hitting that elusive revenue target and tripling our impact. In June, we secured a partnership with Google.org to scale our model. This year, we are on track to double our revenue again. That means we are finally starting to see something resembling the pinnacle of startup success, the hockey stick.

Nevertheless, we don’t feel like celebrating. We know that for social entrepreneurs trying to solve global challenges, the system is rigged. Underneath every accomplishment lies a profoundly broken funding landscape for social innovation. We also know that many of these accomplishments were only possible because we are white, hold US passports, and are well-networked. This article will explore our often disheartening journey to raise investment through impact investors, corporate partnerships, grants, and contests. We will share our experience, and those of our peers, to argue that this funding ecosystem needs to be reimagined to truly support social entrepreneurs and collectively address the global problems they are tackling.

Read the full article about social impact investment by Amanda Levinson and Natasha Freidus at Stanford Social Innovation Review.