Since 2015, The J.M. Kaplan Fund has reached across America to identify and elevate early-stage projects with transformative potential in the fields of social justice, the environment, and heritage conservation. The fourth cycle of the Prize was launched in January 2021—as the country was reeling from a pandemic and grappling with racial and political tensions—and by April received a record 2,826 applications from all fifty states, as well as numerous territories and tribal nations.