Rockefeller Foundation Accelerates U.S. Economic Solutions at "Big Bets for America: Baltimore"

More than 250 U.S. leaders from across philanthropy, policy, the private sector, and nonprofits to surface and scale bold solutions to the country's most pressing economic challenges.

BALTIMORE, April 21, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- The Rockefeller Foundation today hosted Big Bets for America: Baltimore, bringing together more than 250 leaders spanning policy, philanthropic, private, and non-profit sectors in Baltimore to surface, accelerate, and scale ambitious solutions to the country's most pressing challenges. With a Steering Committee—consisting of Abell Foundation, Baltimore Community Foundation, Baltimore Homecoming, Greater Baltimore Committee, and The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation—and strategic partners Greater Washington Partnership, Baltimore Development Corporation, and Johns Hopkins University, the Foundation and event participants, including Maryland Governor Wes Moore, Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott, and Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb, announced new initiatives and innovative collaborations to create economic pathways and advance opportunities for communities across the State of Maryland and nationwide. In Baltimore, The Rockefeller Foundation also launched a $100 million commitment to connect America's workers to good jobs and its next class of U.S. Big Bets Fellows.

"For 250 years, America's promise has been that hard work leads to a stable, dignified life," said Dr. Rajiv J. Shah, President of The Rockefeller Foundation. "Today, too many communities have been left so far behind that this promise feels out of reach. With the commitments announced today, The Rockefeller Foundation is betting on the resilience of the American worker and the ingenuity of our communities — and building the infrastructure to help that bet pay off at national scale."

Big Bets for America is a national series of convenings that brings together leaders from across the United States to accelerate economic growth, energize action, and move communities forward. The Baltimore event builds on momentum from the series' inaugural gathering in Oklahoma City in November 2025.

Major announcements from Big Bets for America: Baltimore include:

• The Rockefeller Foundation Commits $100 Million to Connect America's Workers to Good Jobs. The Rockefeller Foundation launched a new three-year, $100 million commitment to help communities across the country connect more people to good jobs and adapt to rapid economic and technological change. The strategy aims to benefit 10 to 20 million people across approximately 250 of America's most distressed communities, help enable the creation of roughly 1.6 million additional good jobs nationally, and leverage aligned capital in partnership with employers and public, private, and philanthropic funders. The strategy focuses on sectors with the strongest job growth outlook: healthcare and the care economy, energy transition, food systems, and AI-enabled industries.
   
• The Rockefeller Foundation to Increase Support for Invest in Our Future. As part of The Rockefeller Foundation's commitment to advancing good jobs and building stronger, more inclusive workforce systems, The Foundation expects to provide over the next three years an additional $12 million to Invest in Our Future, a pooled fund supported by RF Catalytic Capital, Inc., that mobilizes clean energy opportunities to drive economic opportunity, including jobs, in communities nationwide. Since its launch in 2023, the initiative has worked with aligned funders to unlock hundreds of millions of philanthropic dollars for clean energy deployment and has shown that combining philanthropic capital, policy implementation, and strong cross-sector partnerships can rapidly scale impact and turn clean energy investments into real economic opportunities at the state and local levels.
   
• Governor Wes Moore Announces $1.5 Million in Philanthropic Awards to ENOUGH Communities. Governor Wes Moore highlighted the distribution of $1.5 million in philanthropic funding awards from the Sherman Family Foundation, the Bainum Family Foundation, David and Lucile Packard Foundation, and The Rockefeller Foundation to strengthen education and child care access in nine ENOUGH communities – Maryland jurisdictions with high concentrations of childhood poverty. The funding will support nine ENOUGH communities as they launch and sustain programs to strengthen education and child care, including through such efforts as reducing chronic absenteeism through safe transportation options to school and developing afterschool programs to boost literacy rates.
   
• The Rockefeller Foundation Announces Second Class of U.S. Big Bets Fellows. The Rockefeller Foundation named 10 bold innovators to its 2026 class of U.S. Big Bets Fellows — working in California, Central Appalachia, Indiana, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee, and West Virginia. Building on the inaugural 2025 class, this year's fellows are working to expand workforce pathways and unlock capital for underserved communities. Over the course of the four-month fellowship, The Rockefeller Foundation will provide fellows with tailored programming, peer networking, and professional development to sharpen their approaches and scale their impact. 
   
• The Engine Introduces the Tough Tech Map. The Engine launched the Tough Tech Map, a public interactive directory connecting Tough Tech startups to sector- and geography-specific infrastructure — from national labs to test beds and fellowships to incubators. Developed in partnership with the broader ecosystem, the map aims to centralize resources startups in climate, health, advanced compute, and other Tough Tech sectors need to scale. Learn more at www.ToughTechMap.xyz.
   
• LACI Expands City Climate Innovation Challenge to Baltimore & 15 Other US Cities. The Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator (LACI) announced a new cohort of cities for its City Climate Innovation Challenge, which includes Baltimore City and 15 others. The Challenge helps cities identify climate innovations and cleantech entrepreneurs, pilots the selected solutions, provides technical assistance, and scales what works to better improve lives and livelihoods in urban areas. Baltimore's inclusion signals growing momentum for the program as it scales LACI's unique model of public-private climate collaboration to cities across the country.
   
• The Clean Fight Announces Expansion of its National Deployment Grant Fund. The Clean Fight announced that its National Deployment Grant Fund, an initiative that uses targeted catalytic grants of $50,000 to $250,000 to accelerate the adoption of proven clean energy solutions in homes, schools, and communities across America – prioritizing vulnerable and underserved communities – has received $1 million from The Rockefeller Foundation toward its $10 million goal. The Fund's model is built on the idea that funding the right "first" project unlocks many more: each grant is structured to generate the evidence, financing model, or de-risked use case that allows other communities to follow without ongoing subsidy. In New York, The Clean Fight has supported 70 companies and 22 deployment projects with $5.4 million in catalytic grants, generating over 5,000 follow-on deployments statewide and nearly 1,000 jobs. The Rockefeller Foundation's contribution is helping take The Clean Fight's model national, with learnings shared broadly through open-source reference designs, implementation guides, and national convenings. 
   
• Big Bets for America Series to Go to Cleveland. Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb and The Rockefeller Foundation announced that the next Big Bets for America convening will take place in Cleveland on June 9. More details about that agenda will be provided in the coming weeks.

What participants at Big Bets for America: Baltimore are saying:

• Governor of Maryland Wes Moore: "When I committed to an unprecedented attack on child poverty in Maryland, I knew we needed more than just government on board. That's why I'm grateful to our philanthropic partners who are stepping up alongside us to make bets on solutions no government can tackle alone. Today we're taking another step forward on a truly collaborative approach that brings together government, philanthropy, and the private sector to set the standard for what real, structural progress looks like, and making Maryland a model for the nation."
   
• Mayor of Baltimore Brandon Scott: "Baltimore was proud to host this gathering of public and private sector partners committed to equitable, community-driven economic growth. Especially in areas that have historically faced intentional disinvestment—like many neighborhoods in Charm City—we have to be just as intentional with the ways we work to create opportunity today. I'm grateful that The Rockefeller Foundation shares that focus, and look forward to working together on many of the partnerships announced during this convening." 
   
• Mayor of Cleveland Justin Bibb: "Cleveland is investing in its people, its neighborhoods, and its future - and it's working. The moment is here to bet on our city, to connect residents to opportunity, and to unlock investment at scale. We're ready to show the country what inclusive growth looks like in action." 
   
• Kate Frucher, CEO, The Clean Fight: "This is the moment to make sure proven clean energy solutions – ones that improve lives right now and build resilience for decades to come – don't sit on the sidelines. Supporting the right first project doesn't just benefit one community, it creates a powerful slipstream for everyone who comes after. That's exactly what our Deployment Grant Fund is built to do – using the disproportionate impact that strategically placed, small-dollar grant funding can have." 
   
• Emily Knight, The Engine: "We built the Tough Tech Map to open up access to the infrastructure founders need to scale, not just in major hubs, but everywhere. It serves as connective tissue, helping startups leverage shared Tough-Tech-specific resources so they can stay capital efficient while turning breakthrough ideas into real-world impact."
   
• Matt Petersen, Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator: "LACI's City Climate Innovation Challenge was created to help local governments pilot and scale the best cleantech solutions that improve air quality, create jobs, and grow the economy. Thanks to the support of the Rockefeller Foundation and others, we are excited to launch our next cohort of 16 cities across the U.S, including Baltimore, to increase access to reliable and affordable EV charging for every neighborhood, including apartment dwellers and underserved communities."
   
• Derrick Adams, Charm City Cultural Cultivation: "I've seen how different cities have transformed their communities into these types of communities where people can thrive. We're really going into an entrepreneurial culture right now where there's not going to be a lot of big industry in the way it used to be. We see it through the younger generations, the way they are mapping out their future…if you want to look at the way the economy is moving…people want to be in community, but we need to figure out how this community can advance."
   
• Torrey Smith, Philanthropist, two-time Super Bowl Champion: "The reality is there are so many more people doing way bigger and better things with less. And that's why it's important when you are the Baltimore Orioles or the Baltimore Ravens: You have the opportunity to uplift people by using your platform and providing them with opportunities."
   
• Kevin Plank, Under Armour: "Across the country, leaders are rethinking where they invest, where they grow, and where they place long-term confidence because capital is moving. Talent is mobile and cities are either stepping forward or falling further behind. But Baltimore has everything it needs to compete. …What is needed now isn't more consensus; it's shared conviction followed by action."

About The Rockefeller Foundation
Investing $30 billion over the last 113 years to promote the well-being of humanity, The Rockefeller Foundation is a pioneering philanthropy built on unlikely partnerships and innovative solutions that deliver measurable results for people in the United States and around the world. We leverage scientific breakthroughs, artificial intelligence, and new technologies to make big bets across energy, food, health, and finance, including with our public charity, RF Catalytic Capital (RFCC). For more information, sign up for our newsletter at www.rockefellerfoundation.org/subscribe and follow us on X @RockefellerFdn, Instagram @rockefellerfdn, and LinkedIn @the-rockefeller-foundation.

About The Engine
The Engine is a nonprofit incubator and accelerator dedicated to supporting early stage Tough Tech companies by providing the infrastructure, programs, and ecosystem support they need to thrive. Tough Tech is transformational technology rooted in breakthrough science and engineering, aimed at solving the world's most pressing challenges. These companies are capital-intensive, highly regulated, and technically complex, requiring specialized infrastructure, patient support, and a resilient path from lab to market. Learn more at www.engine.xyz

About Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator (LACI)
The Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator (LACI) is creating an inclusive green economy by unlocking innovation through scaling cleantech startups, transforming markets through catalytic partnerships with policymakers, innovators, and market leaders in transportation, energy, and sustainable cities, like the Transportation Electrification Partnership, and enhancing communities through green jobs workforce training, pilots and other programs. Founded as an economic development initiative by the City of Los Angeles and its Department of Water & Power (LADWP) in 2011, LACI is recognized as one of the top 10 innovative business incubators in the world by UBI. LACI has helped 506 portfolio companies raise over $1 billion in funding, generated $344 million in revenue, and created 2,626 jobs throughout the Los Angeles region, with a long term economic impact of more than $733 million.

About The Clean Fight
The Clean Fight is a not-for-profit dedicated to accelerating the adoption of climate solutions for 100% of the population - moving them into communities faster, more affordably, and at scale. Through catalytic grants, deployment programs, and prize competitions, The Clean Fight designs and delivers adoption models that turn one-off projects into first-of-many. The Clean Fight is supported by NYSERDA, the U.S. Economic Development Administration, and leading philanthropic partners. Learn more at thecleanfight.com.

SOURCE The Rockefeller Foundation