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    • [Chapter 15, page 249]

    Philanthropic Intermediaries

    Intermediary organizations typically have expertise in specific areas such as education or international development. Here are some examples:

    • Acumen Fund was founded in 2001 with seed capital from the Rockefeller Foundation, the Cisco Systems Foundation, and three individual philanthropists. It supports projects in health, housing, and water in developing countries. It also provides financial resources in the form of loans, equity investments, and occasional grants, and also provides intellectual resources in the form of business planning and strategy consulting. Acumen Fund’s projects include the development and distribution of long-lasting anti-malarial bednets, e-kiosks for healthcare distribution, and housing for low-income urban squatters.

    • Ashoka: Innovators for the Public, founded by Bill Drayton in 1981, was the first organization to explicitly brand and fund social entrepreneurs. The organization supports “Ashoka Fellows” around the world who are helping improve systems of civic engagement, economic development, environment, health, human rights, and education. Its Youth Venture program provides young social entrepreneurs seed funding of up to $1,000 to start a social venture.
    • Good Capital, founded in 2006, provides growth capital to social enterprises, such as service businesses that hire and train disconnected youth to healthcare delivery systems that provide medical benefits to at-risk populations. Its first investment product, the Social Enterprise Expansion Fund, hopes to attract $30 million in investment from philanthropists and capital market innovators who will take below market rate returns to provide social enterprises with equity financing and provide nonprofits that have a large percentage of their revenue derived from earned income loans to expand their services.
    • New Profit is to venture philanthropy what Kleiner Perkins or Sequoia Capital is to venture capital. Its portfolio of organizations reads like a Who’s Who of well known social ventures – Teach for America, Jumpstart, and Citizen Schools were once in New Profit’s portfolio and its current portfolio includes award winning nonprofits like College Summit, KickStart and Upwardly Global. Specializing in mid- to late-stage financing, New Profit helps social entrepreneurs and their organizations to achieve their larger vision by providing both financial resources and management consulting.
    • NewSchools manages a portfolio that includes a diverse mix of organizations, including charter management organizations (CMOs) such as Achievement First and Aspire Public Schools that serve underserved communities.

    • The Roberts Enterprise Development Fund (REDF) provides financial resources and expertise to nonprofits that take a market-oriented approach in helping people out of poverty. Some of the organizations in its past portfolio include Rubicon Programs, which operates Rubicon Bakery and Rubicon Landscape Services to employ economically disadvantaged people, and Juma Ventures, a nonprofit that employs youth from disadvantaged communities in career-oriented work opportunities.

    • SeaChange, a relatively new organization founded by former leaders of Goldman Sachs, “seeks to enhance the flow of capital from wealthy donors to select high-performing nonprofit organizations in need of funds to support their growth.” Its view is that promising nonprofit organizations should be financed like for-profit companies at similar stages of development: “with a multi-million dollar round of financing, sized to fund a well-defined, multi-year growth plan.” Its initial focus is on youth education and development.[1].