Introducing NMV's Fall 2022 Cohort: 6 Innovative Projects!

For over a decade, New Media Ventures has invested in progressive startups wrestling with the biggest challenges facing our democracy – and 2022 was no exception. We closed out the year by welcoming six innovative new projects to our portfolio: INTRVL, Gen-Z for Change, New Disabled South, Frame, Bloc Media, and The Center for New Data.

We’re proud to continue our work of finding, supporting, and financing diverse startups that are telling new stories, building advocacy movements, and catalyzing civic engagement. Please reach out if you’d like to connect with or support these incredible organizations! 

INTRVL (for-profit) helps campaigns turbocharge their ad performance with advanced media optimization and audience research tools. These innovative tools make in-field media measurement more cost-efficient and insightful, unlocking more effective ad buys without additional media spend. INTRVL has built tooling that enables them to measure and optimize multi-channel media programs as they are running.

INTRVL solves some of the biggest challenges holding back modern media campaigns. Our proprietary tools cut wasteful targeting, measure real-world ad performance, and optimize channel mix to accelerate program impact. These award-winning tools can grow media effectiveness by 2-3X, and we’re excited to partner with New Media Ventures to make them available to clients across the country.

– Steven McAlpine, Founder & CEO, INTRVL

How you can help: Invest in their work (they’re currently raising a round) and introduce them to funders to help them scale their tools ahead of the 2024 election!

Want to learn more? Learn more about their award winning tools here as a Reed Award Winner and listen to this recent podcast about making programs more efficient with CEO Steven McAlpine! You can also follow them on LinkedIn or Twitter!

Gen-Z for Change (non-profit, 501c4) is a collective of Gen-Z activists that leverage the power of social media to educate our generation, encourage and mobilize civic participation, shift the political debate, and enact change. They have direct, trusted relationships with Gen-Z content creators and have a front row seat to the misinformation and disinformation pumped into social media platforms. They’re the place where the creator economy and progressive politics intersect on social media. 

NMV’s investment is crucial to our growth in 2023. We are able to bring on a full-time Finance Director and direct resources towards strengthening our creator network, as well as increase our in-state programming with a focus on over ten key states, including Texas, Georgia, Virginia, and Pennsylvania to name a few. We are so grateful for the investment and look forward to keeping in touch with NMV’s community as our work expands.

– Elise Joshi, Acting Executive Director, Gen-Z for Change

How you can help: They’ve got big plans to almost triple their budget for 2023 and you can donate here, join them as a major organizational funder, and help them find and recruit new staff members! And check out their brand new merch store filled with fun gear that was designed in-house and union printed in the USA! 

Want to learn more? Read about their work and 2023 campaigns, and follow them on TikTok, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

New Disabled South (non-profit, 501c3 and 501c4) is on a mission to improve the lives of disabled people and cultivate strong disability rights and disability justice frameworks in the South through policy, advocacy and organizing. Guided by disability justice principles and centering the voices of multiply-marginalized people with disabilities, their work is focused on advancing a singular vision: a South where liberation and justice for all disabled people is achievable.

Receiving this funding from New Media Ventures will go so far in helping us create the world disabled people have been dreaming about here in the South, but it also is a historic investment, as disability justice work that is typically underfunded by progressive investors. It says so much about how NMV lives up to their values as well and speaks to their position of leadership in the space that they would fund a disabled-led organization doing this kind of work in a region that is in so much need. We look forward to building a strong relationship with the entire team at NMV and working together to achieve progressive change in the South.

– Dom Kelly, President & CEO, New Disabled South

How you can help: Make a donation to help them scale their work, introduce them to a funder, and connect them with potential partners within the progressive ecosystem! 

Want to learn more? Watch their launch video, read and subscribe to their newsletter, and follow them on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook. And check out this short clip of their advisory council member Stacey Abrams talking about them on Good Morning America! 

Frame (for-profit) is a media company helping younger generations consume more quality, in-depth news through multimedia, immersive journalism, reaching more than 3M monthly unique viewers. Their award-winning publication is dedicated to delivering immersive and unconventional storytelling that captivates, informs, and inspires. By exploring new angles and presenting news in innovative formats, Frame aims to deepen public understanding and foster a sense of empathy and connection with the world around us.

We are so excited to be partnering with New Media Ventures to help further Frame’s mission of using new, visual and immersive journalism formats to deepen younger generations' understanding of the biggest issues of our time, and help foster healthier individuals, communities, and institutions around the world.

– Ben Moe, Founder & CEO, Frame

How you can help: Invest in their company (they’re currently raising a Seed Plus round) and connect them with advertisers who can help source new ad deals!

Want to learn more? Read one of their recent stories, subscribe to receive new Frame stories via email or SMS, and follow them on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

Bloc Media (non-profit, 501c4) is a project of Organize For Justice, the sister organization of Justice Democrats PAC. They work to elevate the progressive bloc inside and outside of Congress. Through content and messaging, they help to shape the conversation and change the weather in which progressives operate. They believe that institutional progressives need a strong independent media presence and they’re working to occupy that space through education, storytelling and conversation. 

Bloc Media is thrilled to receive funding from New Media Ventures as we continue to grow and establish our role as the go-to media team for the bloc we’re building with The Squad and other progressives on and off the Hill. This support will allow our small but impressive team of left strategists and media makers to produce podcasts, documentaries, issue explainers and strategy memos that reframe the narrative of top progressive demands. We couldn’t be more excited to work with New Media Ventures as Bloc Media works to bring new people into the movements that feed our electoral wins.

– Emma Dessau, Media Director, Bloc Media

How you can help: Invest in their work, introduce them to foundations that fund 501c4 work, or connect them with someone who can help expand their podcast and video audiences. 

Want to learn more? Read and subscribe to their newsletter and Youtube channel, listen to their excellent Bloc Party podcast, and watch their most recent "Bloc Doc" about new Congresswoman Summer Lee, the first Black woman ever to represent Pennsylvania in Congress. You can also find and follow ED Alexandra Rojas, Comms Director Waleed Shahid, Political Director Amira Hassan, and lead video producer Jeremy Flood on social media.

The Center for New Data (nonprofit, 501c3) is a non-partisan, non-profit organization dedicated to using big data to protect our democracy. They build data-driven solutions for our democracy’s entrenched problems like long lines at the ballot box, voting access disparities, and gerrymandered redistricting boundaries.

Our founding team has put a great deal of grit and ingenuity into bootstrapping our vision to put big data to work for our democracy. The extraordinary gift of becoming a New Media Ventures portfolio organization isn't just the financial support, but the network of mission-aligned funders who are eager to help us scale.

– Daniel Wein, Co-Founder

How you can help: Connect them with funders looking to back progressive, nonpartisan data initiatives, and help them find new staff and recruit new board members!

Want to learn more? Read more and watch this mini-documentary on their work, watch them pitch at NMV’s Summit, and connect with them on LinkedIn.

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As we predicted in our TikTok Gap report, the progressive space is moving full steam ahead to catch up on emerging media platforms and earn the trust of an increasingly diverse base. By investing deeply in emerging properties that uplift diverse voices and in cultural media properties changing the narrative for overlooked communities, NMV is not only helping the movement earn that trust – we’re helping to protect our democracy in 2024 and beyond.

Interested in joining NMV in supporting these projects? For more information on our for-profit investments, contact Phillip Sanders at psanders@newmediaventures.org. To follow-up about any of our nonprofit investments, contact Ev Boyle at eboyle@newmediaventures.org.

Want to help spread the word? Share this blog post with your network across social media and tag us in your post! (NMV social profiles: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram)

Interested in funding NMV and helping us support more organizations like these? Please reach out to NMV Director of Development Brittany Grimm at bgrimm@newmediaventures.org.