High-impact, high-risk solutions face barriers to receiving capital. The Reconstruct Challenge is a platform that helps organizations who care about systemic issues find innovators that are working to solve them — innovators that might lack the right connections to make it possible.
We unearth innovation and support its growth through a reverse-pitch competition. We help recruit innovators and bring them to Louisville and Southern Indiana to support them using our network and capital. A panel of evaluators, from local stakeholders to national experts, reviews applications and provides feedback and mentorship along the way.
Read the faqWe believe in the power of innovation. Often, solutions to our community’s most significant challenges just need someone to take a risk on them. Traditional grant processes are engineered for those most familiar with the process — not those most familiar with the problem. And the first step to developing a successful solution is a deep understanding of the problem. Through the Reconstruct Challenge’s risk-tolerant approach, we have funded innovation that has unlocked significant impact for our community.
Our reverse-pitch model surfaces ideas from a wide variety of sources — from a seasoned entrepreneur who has been tackling a problem in other cities for years to a local non-profit with an innovative idea but no funds to implement it. We are able to find and fund feasible, enduring, and scalable solutions that produce tangible impacts.
Innovators selected to receive the Reconstruct Challenge grant implement their creative solutions in the Louisville and Southern Indiana region.
The Zenyor Healthcare App and Webapp is designed to upcycle phones/tablets into at-home healthcare kiosks that are always powered on for A) care communication, B) care and transportation scheduling/reminding, and C) prompted health. Please visit Zenyorhealthcare.com for more information.
Change Today, Change Tomorrow is a Black woman-led non-profit organization in Louisville, KY. Through our pillars of service, Food Justice, Community Engagement, and Public Health, we provide for the most marginalized communities in Louisville, because when you show up for the most marginalized, you show up for everyone.
.jpg)
Cook’s Nook Under the banner of Cultura Cuisine, The Cook's Nook provides "food as medicine" solutions to organizations addressing the health needs of the millions of Americans who suffer from diet-related disease but lack the means and access to healthy food that would help them change course. Our diverse menu of nutritious, culturally relevant prepared meals is designed to cost-effectively improve patient health—and save payors millions of dollars in avoided medical expenses.
Dollar For eliminates medical debt by advocating for patients and enforcing hospital charity care policies.
.jpg)
Every Mother’s Advocate (ĒMA) envisions a world where mothers are no longer separated from their children due to preventable causes, but are equipped and empowered to raise their children in stable and nurturing homes.
Facilities Management Services employs 600 custodians in Metro Louisville. The biggest challenge applicants face to work at FMS is lack of accessible, affordable transportation. Working Your Way to Wheels is a multi-stakeholder strategy that aims to assist custodial workers with owning and maintaining their own vehicle.
Feed Louisville is a food justice organization centered on the work of a team of professional chefs who cook meals daily for our houseless community using overproduced food from local restaurants, bakers, caterers and farmers.
Free-From-Market (FFM) is a patient-driven, digital health platform providing personalized food selection and health coaching within a member’s cultural norms and preferences, while allowing patients, providers, and payers to measure specific health outcomes.
Granny's Birth Initiative strives to carry on the legacy of The Granny Midwives, ensuring black and brown birthing people have a safe birthing space as we fight the Black Infant and maternal Health Crisis and the challenges of transitioning through the penal, child welfare, and transitional housing systems.
Haven Connect increases affordable housing access by streamlining the affordable housing application process.
Honest Jobs is the nation’s leading fair-chance employment platform, helping people with criminal records find better jobs faster.
Journey Foods builds AI-driven supply chain software to enhance packaged food nutrition, cost, and sustainability. We’ve built the world’s most actionable database, providing product development, portfolio management, and supply chain insights.
.jpg)
Kare Mobile is a Dental Service Organization focused on innovation using a hybrid brick and mortar and mobile van oral care delivery model. Kare’s technology and systems were designed to eradicate dental deserts and establish a more equitable oral healthcare model for the world.
Kyndly Benefits is on a mission to hack health insurance. We help people and small businesses find and secure high-quality health care through the ACA exchange. Our Kynd Choice application helps people navigate the confusing healthcare marketplace, select the right plan, and access federal subsidies to make health insurance affordable.
Leap Fund has built benefits cliff coaching program, which includes predicting individualized cliffs, and employers tools, to better understand the scope of a problem, and actually help employees avoid benefits cliffs altogether.
.jpg)
Malama Health improves pregnancy-related outcomes through a 24/7 digital coach for pregnancy and postpartum. Developed in partnership with Stanford maternal fetal medicine providers, Malama's gestational diabetes care management solution has reduced c-section rates by 50% and NICU admissions by 38% compared to U.S. averages.
Maro’s mission is to eliminate the 11-year gap between first symptom and first intervention when it comes to youth mental health. Our digital “medical neighborhood” operates across home, school and clinic to support early intervention & risk detection starting with school-based mental health screening and triaged interventions.
.jpg)
Melanated Healthcare is a digital health platform and medical practice that helps connect Black, Indigenous and people of color (BIPOC) to health professionals that share similar racial or cultural backgrounds. Our mission is to decrease health disparities by increasing access to non-discriminatory, exceptional care.
.jpg)
Navigate Maternity is a cutting-edge medical device company that is revolutionizing maternal health outcomes. Our remote patient monitoring system, which includes a user-friendly mobile app and FDA-cleared Bluetooth-connected blood pressure cuff and scale, captures and transmits key biometric data from the first prenatal appointment through twelve months postpartum.
Nesterly is a platform that links empty nesters or retirees that have spare bedrooms and want to age in place with trusted renters looking for affordable housing.
The Nori Project Inc. is the Food Equi-tech Company Monsooning America’s Food Deserts and beyond through the use of ultramodern vending machines. Nori will sell fresh produce and hot healthy meals on command in these weatherproof vending machines that will operate outside on sidewalks seemingly on every city block.
Through thinking creatively about how to use space, Padsplit has created a unique approach to adding more affordable housing units without waiting for new construction.
Urban Institute created a micro-mortgage marketplace for affordable home purchases and renovation, harnessing the existing affordable housing stock in Louisville and Southern Indiana to close the housing gap.
Working Your Way Home helps close the housing gap by increasing the availability of down payment assistance through employer contributions.
finEQUITY advances the financial futures of those impacted by long-term incarceration. It offers no-cost financial tools, such as credit building opportunities, to justice-impacted community members in order to ease access to employment, affordable housing, utilities, phone plans and more.
mRelief is a tool that eases the process of applying for and receiving SNAP benefits for those who are eligible. This female-led company has unlocked over $189 million in benefits and helped over 425,000 families across all 50 states secure food stamps.
On this episode of More Than Profit, Bryce talks with Scott Koloms, President and CEO of Facilities Management Services, the first b-corp certified janitorial company in the world and Founder of Canopy, a nonprofit working to create a more vibrant and relevant Kentucky economy that serves all folks and takes care of our beautiful landscape.
read moreSystemic problems require creative solutions. We are working to build a more inclusive, equitable, and dynamic economy — one challenge at a time.
