In 2013, Y Combinator made its first nonprofit grant to Watsi. Since then, we’ve funded 25 nonprofit startups in diverse spaces including global health (Noora Health, New Incentives), poverty alleviation (e.g. No Lean Season, New Story, Zidisha), democracy (vote.org, ACLU), and philanthropy itself (80,000 Hours, Centre for Effective Altruism). Y Combinator backed nonprofits have gone on to be funded by GiveWell, the Open Philanthropy Project, DRK, and others.

The premise of the program is simple—we treat nonprofit startups almost exactly like for-profits. Nonprofits get $100k of funding and go through the standard YC program, participating side by side with for-profits. We help the founders focus on relentlessly growing a key metric and on making something people want.

Many people have asked us: how do you choose nonprofits to fund? We consider four key factors:

  1. Team
  2. Big problem + big solution
  3. Provable or promising program
  4. Y Combinator fit

Read the source article at Y Combinator