- New Profit Inc.
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New Profit Inc. 
Founder(s) Vanessa Kirsch, President and Founder Type Public charity Founded 1998 Location Boston, MA Key people Vanessa Kirsch, President and Founder
Kim Syman, Managing Partner and Director of the Action Tank
Doug Borchard, Managing Partner and Chief Operating OfficerFocus Venture Philanthropy Employees ~30 Website newprofit.com New Profit Inc.[1][2][3][4] is a venture philanthropy fund based in Boston, Massachusetts. With the support of individual donors, and its partner, Monitor Group, New Profit provides multi-year financial and strategic support to a portfolio of social entrepreneurs working in education, youth development, public health, workforce development, and other areas. New Profit also seeks to strengthen the field of social entrepreneurship through its Action Tank initiatives.
Contents
History
New Profit was founded in 1998 by social entrepreneur Vanessa Kirsch.[5][6][7] After starting and growing two nonprofits—Public Allies and the Women’s Information Network—Kirsch took a year to travel the world, interviewing social entrepreneurs and citizens across 22 countries. Through this experience, she came to understand that the nonprofit sector lacks sufficient access to second-stage growth capital, locking social entrepreneurs and their funders into a start-up phase mentality. She determined that in order for social entrepreneurs to have the greatest possible impact, they needed access to financial resources that could allow them to sustain and grow their program models.
In 1996, she began laying the groundwork for a venture philanthropy fund that would provide social entrepreneurs and their organizations with funding and valuable strategic consulting services. After over a year of research and development with a team of social entrepreneurs, academics, and philanthropists, Kirsch and a partner founded New Profit in 1998. With support from Monitor Group and under Kirsch’s continued leadership, New Profit has worked with 27 nonprofit organizations to date.[8]
Mission and Model
New Profit’s mission is to help innovative social entrepreneurs and their organizations dramatically improve opportunities for children, families, and communities. New Profit works to fulfill this mission through two related approaches:
1. Directly supporting a group of social entrepreneur-led nonprofits with multi-year grants and strategic support.
2. Developing field-wide initiatives through the Action Tank that seek to help all social entrepreneurs and their organizations impact the social problems they seek to solve.
Direct Support to Organizations
New Profit provides grants to organizations that address issues in education, workforce development, public health, or poverty alleviation through its portfolio.[9] Once a nonprofit organization has received funding, New Profit focuses on support efforts that help integrate financial and strategic resources to help the organization develop and grow into a sustainable program.
A staff member at New Profit works with each organization that New Profit funds as a portfolio manager. This person takes a board seat and acts as a day-to-day advisor to the organization, building a partnership with the social entrepreneur and creating a plan for future projects that are tailored to the organization's needs. The strategic support each nonprofit receives assumes a variety of forms, from refining the organizations’ social change model and helping find talent, to developing and coaching the board. In addition, New Profit also offers strategic growth planning and executive coaching for the social entrepreneur, and connects each nonprofit with pro-bono consulting services from Monitor Group.
With funding awarded in July 2010 through the federal Social Innovation Fund, New Profit has developed the Pathways Fund, through which it plans to make grants to organizations that focus on helping disconnected youth ages 18 to 24.[10] The Pathways Fund will seek to improve high school completion rates, increase college enrollment and persistence, and better prepare youth to enter the workforce in select geographies across the U.S.[11]
Action Tank Initiatives
In 2004, as it began to see program results from its first group of supported nonprofits, New Profit created the Action Tank in an effort to work beyond the organizations it directly funds. The Action Tank has initiatives in three focus areas:
- Federal Policy: Through an initiative called America Forward, a nonpartisan coalition of more than 90 nonprofit organizations, New Profit seeks to advance a policy agenda and create an infrastructure for social entrepreneurs and government to act together to grow of effective nonprofit organizations.[12]
- Events: Through its annual event, the Gathering of Leaders, New Profit brings together leaders from the public, private, philanthropic, and nonprofit sectors to develop new ideas, relationships, and resources and help build stronger nonprofit organizations.[13]
Impact
New Profit tracks the progress of organizations it funds against five major focus areas—impact and innovation, growth, leadership and governance, organizational strategy, and metrics. To measure this progress, New Profit has developed a Growth Diagnostic Tool that it uses to assess the development of each nonprofit it funds and to then focus additional support where it is most necessary.[14][15]
Within the portfolio of nonprofit organizations it supports, New Profit targets a 30 percent compound annual growth rate for revenue and a 40 percent compound annual growth rate for clients served. In 2009, New Profit reported that its portfolio of supported organizations achieved a 35 percent compound annual growth rate for revenue and a 40 percent compound annual growth rate for clients served.[16]
Current Investments
- Achievement First
- BUILD
- College Summit
- Family Independence Initiative
- Health Leads
- Genesys Works
- iMentor
- Knowledge Is Power Program
- LIFT
- Management Leadership for Tomorrow
- National College Advising Corps
- New Leaders for New Schools
- New Teacher Center
- Peer Health Exchange
- Single Stop USA
- Stand for Children
- Teach For All
- The Mission Continues
- Turnaround for Children
- Year Up
- YouthBuild USA
Past Investments
- Building Educated Leaders for Life
- Citizen Schools
- Computers for Youth
- Freelancers Union
- Girls for a Change
- Jumpstart for Young Children
- Kids Voting USA
- Rare Conservation
- Right To Play
- Teach For America
- Upwardly Global
Press Coverage
- Fischer, Michael, "Investing in Social Entrepreneurs: New Profit takes a very hands-on approach to building innovative organizations," Wealth Manager, May 2009.
- Brooks, David, "Thoroughly Modern Do-Gooders," The New York Times, March 21, 2008.
- "How Many Billionaires Does It Take To Fix a School System?" New York Times Magazine, March 9, 2008.
- "The 2008 Social Capitalist Awards," Fast Company Magazine, December 2007/January 2008.
- Hammonds, Keith H., "Now the Good News..." Fast Company Magazine, December 2007.
- Beatty, Sally, and Silverman, Rachel Emma,"Doing Due Diligence On Your Donations," The Wall Street Journal, December 20, 2007.
- George, Bill, "Where Have All the Leaders Gone? (Part III)," Business Week, October 22, 2007.
- Jack, Andrew, The business of philanthropy: Intermediaries have the skill to help give," The Financial Times, July 5, 2007.
References
- ^ "Investing in Social Entrepreneurs: New Profit takes a very hands-on approach to building innovative organizations,.". Wealth Manager (May, 2009). http://www.wealthmanagerweb.com/Issues/2009/May-2009/Pages/Investing-in-Social-Entrepreneurs.aspx. Retrieved 2008-03-29.[dead link]
- ^ "Lessons in no-apology giving; emphasis is now on results for new age philanthropists.". Investment News (February, 2001). 2001-02-28. http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-11532693_ITM. Retrieved 2008-03-29.
- ^ "The Money Issue - Philanthropy - Wealth and Affluence". New York Times. March 9, 2008. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/09/magazine/09roundtable-t.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=%22new+profit+inc.%22&st=nyt/&oref=slogin. Retrieved 2008-03-29.
- ^ "David Gergen on the new engines of reform". US News and World Report. http://www.usnews.com/usnews/biztech/articles/060220/20gergen.htm/. Retrieved 2008-03-29.[dead link]
- ^ "Social Justice-Alan Khazei and Vaness Kirsch,.". Fast Company (November 30 2008). http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/30/khazei.html. Retrieved 2010-07-27.
- ^ "Monitor Talent, Vanessa Kirsch Biography,.". http://www.monitortalent.com/talent/Vanessa-Kirsch-Profile.html. Retrieved 2010-07-27.
- ^ "New Profit Inc., Vanessa Kirsch Biography,.". http://Newprofit.com/kirsch. Retrieved 2010-07-27.
- ^ "New Profit Inc., Our Story,". http://www.newprofit.com/cgi-bin/iowa/about/3.html. Retrieved 2010-07-27.
- ^ Brooks, David (November 28, 2008). "Stimulus for Skeptics". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/28/opinion/28brooks.html?_r=1. Retrieved 2009-04-22.
- ^ "New Profit Selected as Social Innovation Fund Intermediary". http://www.newprofit.com/cgi-bin/iowa/newsroom/article/97.html. Retrieved 2010-07-27.
- ^ "Press Release: Inaugural Social Innovation Fund Grants Awarded to Experienced Innovators". Corporation for National and Community Service. July 22, 2010. http://www.nationalservice.gov/about/newsroom/releases_detail.asp?tbl_pr_id=1829. Retrieved 2010-07-22.
- ^ "America Forward,.". http://www.americaforward.org/. Retrieved 2010-07-27.
- ^ "New Profit, Bringing Innovators Together,.". http://www.newprofit.com/cgi-bin/iowa/do/59.html. Retrieved 2010-07-27.
- ^ "Investing in Social Entrepreneurs: New Profit takes a very hands-on approach to building innovative organizations,.". Wealth Manager (May, 2009). http://www.wealthmanagerweb.com/Issues/2009/May-2009/Pages/Investing-in-Social-Entrepreneurs.aspx. Retrieved 2008-03-29.[dead link]
- ^ "New Profit, Portfolio Management,.". http://www.newprofit.com/cgi-bin/iowa/do/53.html. Retrieved 2010-07-27.
- ^ "New Profit, Portfolio Management,.". http://www.newprofit.com/cgi-bin/iowa/do/53.html. Retrieved 2010-07-27.
External links
Categories:- Organizations based in Boston, Massachusetts
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