Unlikely Collaborators Awards $7.2 Million to Expand Perception Box Work at Nonprofits Nationwide

First national RFP supports 26 new nonprofit partners and continues funding for 26 organizations bringing Perception Box awareness into communities across the country

LOS ANGELES, Nov. 4, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Unlikely Collaborators today announced $7.2 million in grants to 52 nonprofit organizations across the United States, expanding its investment in programs that help people become more aware of the beliefs, experiences and assumptions shaping how they see themselves and the world.

The grants include 26 new nonprofit partners and continued support for 26 organizations, marking the culmination of Unlikely Collaborators’ first national Request for Proposals.

The result is a portfolio spanning hospitals and schools, prisons and reentry programs, veterans and first responder communities, grief and healing programs, and organizations working with young people, artists, healthcare professionals and people recovering from trauma.

While the settings and approaches are very different, the question at the center of the work is the same: What helps someone recognize the lens through which they perceive themselves and the world, and become open to alternative ways of seeing?

Some programs use writing, poetry or theater. Others use mindfulness, dialogue, movement, healthcare, grief support or experiences designed to interrupt long-held assumptions. What connects them is a focus on creating moments when people turn their attention inward and begin to recognize how their own experiences, beliefs and stories shape what they see.

“I’m deeply moved by the creativity and care these organizations bring to their work, often with people navigating incredibly difficult circumstances,” said Elizabeth R. Koch, creator of the Perception Box™ framework and Founder and CEO of Unlikely Collaborators. “These non-profits come to us with an intimate understanding of their communities, enabling them to help these demographics from the inside out, and we have so much to learn from them. My hope is that by collaborating on our different approaches, we can all hold one another and ourselves with greater kindness and compassion.”

The Perception Box is the invisible lens through which each of us experiences ourselves, other people and the world. It is shaped by our biology, beliefs, expectations, life experiences and the meanings we make from those experiences.

Unlikely Collaborators launched its first national Request for Proposals in April 2026, inviting U.S.-based nonprofits to propose projects that put the Perception Box into practice. UC sought programs that actively engage participants in examining their own beliefs and assumptions, with particular attention to the experiences that might help someone recognize their perspective and become open to seeing things differently.

Applicants were asked to identify what specifically happens in their programs that leads participants to reconsider their own perspective, including the moments when a meaningful shift might occur.

1. 826 National Youth Writing
2. A Home Within
3. Beyond Us & Them
4. Children’s Hospital Los Angeles
5. Coalition for Trust in Health & Science
6. Community Warriors 4 Peace (CW4P)
7. Constructive Dialogue Institute, Inc.
8. Defy Ventures, Inc.
9. Domestic Violence Project at the Urban Justice Center
10. Encompass Northwest
11. Forward Impact dba Represent Justice
12. Get Lit – Words Ignite
13. Girls Inc. of Los Angeles
14. Kidsave, Inc.
15. L.A. Works
16. Los Angeles Fire Department Foundation
17. LoveYourBrain Foundation
18. Making Space
19. Mission Belonging
20. Peace in Schools
21. Rose Andom Center
22. Soliya
23. The Regents of the University of Colorado dba University of Colorado Boulder
24. UCSF Osher Center for Integrative Health
25. Uncornered
26. WalkGood Inc

Continued Support

Unlikely Collaborators is also continuing its support of 26 organizations whose work it has previously funded:

1. American Red Cross
2. Closegap
3. Create Now
4. Crim Fitness Foundation
5. Dear Jack Foundation
6. Fireside Project, Inc.
7. Harvest Home, Inc.
8. Heroic Hearts Project
9. Holistic Life Foundation
10. Inside Outside Circle Foundation dba Inside Circle
11. Institute for Advanced Consciousness Studies
12. Inward Bound Mindfulness
13. Middlesex College Center for Justice-Impacted Students
14. New Directions for Women
15. Open Source Wellness
16. Prison Yoga Project, Inc.
17. Project HEAL: Help to Eat Accept and Live
18. Street Poets
19. Swan Songs Musical Last Wishes
20. The Dougy Center: The National Grief Center for Children & Families
21. The Mend Collaborative
22. University of Oregon Foundation / Center for the Science and Practice of Well-being
23. Usona Institute
24. Veterans Breakfast Club
25. Vista Del Mar Child and Family Services
26. WholeSchool Mindfulness

The grants range from $25,000 to $250,000.

Applications underwent a multi-reviewer evaluation process, with particular attention to Perception Box alignment, the depth of the participant experience, how the proposed experience could support shifts in perception, lived experience and proximity to the work, organizational capacity and the potential for meaningful impact.

About Unlikely Collaborators

Unlikely Collaborators is a nonprofit focused on helping people better understand themselves and each other. Founded and led by Elizabeth R. Koch, the organization brings the Perception Box into people’s everyday lives through experiences, storytelling, partnerships and grantmaking.

The Perception Box is a scientifically informed translational framework for understanding the internal lens through which each person experiences and interprets the world. By becoming more aware of that lens, people can begin to recognize the beliefs, experiences, expectations and stories shaping what they perceive and create more space for curiosity, reflection and choice.

About Elizabeth R. Koch

Elizabeth R. Koch is a writer, social entrepreneur, and Founder and CEO of Unlikely Collaborators, a nonprofit dedicated to helping people better understand themselves and each other. She developed the Perception Box framework to describe the internal lens, shaped by our biology, beliefs, experiences, and the meanings we make from them, through which each of us experiences ourselves and the world.

Her work brings together scientific research, storytelling, curriculum development, and real-world experiences designed to help people become more aware of how they perceive themselves and the world around them. Koch is also co-founder of the Tiny Blue Dot Foundation, which supports interdisciplinary scientific research exploring perception, identity, and meaning-making.

Her first book, The Perception Box, will be published by Avid Reader Press, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, in April 2027.

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