Schmidt Futures, a venture facility for public benefit established by philanthropists Eric and Wendy Schmidt, has announced the winners of its inaugural Alliance for the American Dream competition.

The Alliance for the American Dream is a network of communities, each anchored by a public research university, that will provide access to capital and markets for new ideas that support distressed communities locally. The competition initially offered a $1 million investment in support of an innovative idea aimed at boosting net income by 10 percent for ten thousand middle-class households by 2020, either through increased income or a reduction in their cost of living.

After reviewing the finalists, the organization awarded a total of $3 million in support of five separate projects in four communities. Sharing first place are the the LIFT (Legal Interventions for Transforming) Dane team at the University of Wisconsin and Project Benjamin at Arizona State University. And sharing second place are the Coal Country Strike Team at the University of Utah, Ohio State University and its Power of Home program, and the We Care for Dane Kids initiative at the University of Wisconsin.