New Pluralists has awarded $5 million to seven projects that connect communities across class divides to solve problems like housing, AI disruption, and economic opportunity for all. The 2026 Breakthrough Fund projects span the country – from Oregon to Florida and Ohio to Alabama – and offer distinct, scalable approaches to rebuilding trust, belonging, and cooperation where class distrust runs deep.

Since New Pluralists launched in 2021 as a cross-ideological funder collaborative, we have invested nearly $40 million and worked with more than 150 organizations to strengthen our vibrant, multifaith, and multiracial democracy. Over the last 50 years, America has seen a growing gap between the rich and poor, which undermines support for democracy, our belief in equal opportunity, and broad civic participation. It also exacerbates isolation and segregation, as well as distrust in institutions and one another. (Read more about why we focused on class divides.)

The 2026 Breakthrough Fund draws on five years of investing in the extraordinary change that happens when neighbors from every background find solutions together, even when they fiercely disagree. Grants range from $600,000 to $750,000 over three years to support projects that bring unlikely allies together across class lines to improve people’s lives and work towards common goals. 

Each grantee is navigating transitions that are intensifying a sense of grievance: resort towns where many people can no longer afford to live, cities undergoing uneven revitalization, data centers that are changing land use and local industries, and rural areas contending with years of disinvestment. While the issues and tactics differ, these awardees are best-in-class examples of how to unite people across their differences to build communities that work for all.

“The American Dream feels out of reach for many people across America,” said Liz Vogel, executive director of New Pluralists. “These seven teams include more than 20 organizations that are bringing communities together to address vital questions: Can people afford to live in the places where they work, or will they spend hours of their lives commuting? Who will benefit from economic development? How will artificial intelligence affect our future, and what is our role in shaping that destiny? By giving everyone a voice in building their community’s future, these groups show us how to build trust and make collaboration across our differences practical, powerful, and deeply joyful — so that we can adapt those lessons at scale.”

The Breakthrough Fund received 250 nominations for projects that have a track record of strengthening trust across divides and tangibly improving people’s lives. During the nomination process, we read countless stories of people across the U.S. who want strong communities that provide a good life for their families, but are increasingly frustrated with decision-makers and worry progress might be impossible. 

Awarded projects represent a wide diversity of pluralism practices, from bridge-building to community organizing. One grantee in Ohio is convening over 40 associations across a historically segregated Cleveland neighborhood to give everyone a voice in shaping a community-wide redevelopment effort. In Kentucky, a rural-urban network across 80 counties is using cultural events and community-driven problem-solving to address issues ranging from opioid addiction to data center policy. Another grantee in Oregon organizes diverse, cross-class civic assemblies to collaborate on challenges facing an 8,000-square-mile region spanning tribal, rural, and urban communities transformed by rapid growth in outdoor tourism, tech, and healthcare.

One common thread: several grantees have found that civic participation grows fastest when it feels less like a duty and more like a celebration. Several projects pair problem-solving with food, music, art, or shared meals that make showing up something people truly look forward to.

Breakthrough grants are designed to unlock the next stage of growth for promising projects that increase civic participation and find durable and scalable solutions to persistent problems. New Pluralists will accompany all grantees with evaluation and storytelling support, so we can learn how to build trust more effectively across class divides elsewhere.  We will host convenings with our grantees and funders and share our learnings throughout the three-year grant cycle. 

Congratulations to the incredible Breakthrough Fund grantees! These projects and organizations are proof that when people rediscover their shared stake in one another’s future, division starts to give way to belonging.

Learn more about each of these projects.