Des Moines Register
08-02-06
Philanthropy lends a helping hand
Social Venture Partners lets people do more than just write a check. They commit time, professional skills
— and money — to causes.
By BONNIE HARRIS
REGISTER BUSINESS WRITER
Brian Donaghy is a venture capitalist who helps "grow" high-tech firms, moving them from infant startups to full-scale profitable companies in a few years' time.
Lately, though, the 37-year-old has been preoccupied with a small, silvery fish called tilapia. He plans to throw some serious cash at it soon, but for reasons far different from the investments he banks on at work.
This fish, Donaghy believes, could introduce a whole new breed of philanthropy to Iowa.
"There are business people out there like me who want to do more than just write a check to a charitable organization or nonprofit," Donaghy said. "They want to give back with their brains and their time and their skills, too."
The concept is called Social Venture Partners, and Donaghy is leading its drive within the business community under the umbrella of United Way. It requires individuals, presumably independent entrepreneurs, to pitch in at least $5,000 as an initial investment in a business venture that would generate income for a nonprofit group. Then it requires the partners, as they're called, to commit up to two years of their time and professional skills to make sure that business becomes profitable.
Donaghy's group of charter partners - about a dozen so far - have decided to make tilapia their first venture project. The idea is to build a fish farm on
Wildwood Hills Ranch, which serves up to 600 disadvantaged youths through summer camps on its 400-acre property in Madison County.
Revenue from the fish sales would help provide Wildwood with sustainable income to continue its services, while residents of the impoverished Oakridge
Neighborhood in Des Moines would be hired to run the aquaculture business.
And, as is the spirit of Social Venture Partners, Donaghy and other investors would work alongside both groups to get the business running. They would provide job mentoring and oversee the operation until Oakwood Aquaculture could be ready to roll on its own.

"There are so many good charities and programs out there, but most of them only get so far with the traditional methods of fundraising and thinking," Donaghy said.
"There's never enough money, never enough volunteers. We have to change our thinking in how to provide sustainable strategies here," he said.
To get started with Oakwood Aquaculture, partners would pool their business know-how with that of outside consultants and some guidance from Iowa State
University's Extension Service for Aquaculture.
Year-round venture
Donaghy said the group chose tilapia because they were looking for a yearround, cash-producing venture that would give a hands-on agriculture experience to Wildwood campers and job mentoring opportunities to Oakridge residents.
Donaghy said there is a strong market demand - but low local supply - of tilapia in Iowa. The Oakwood Aquaculture would sell fish to local restaurants, such as
Iowa Machine Shed, and distribute through such grocery chains as Hy-Vee and
Dahl's, he said.
"The potential for this to really take off, with 'Iowa home-grown' branding and other elements, is terrific," Donaghy said.
Some nonprofits already are highly successful with self-sustaining revenue operations, such as Goodwill and its thrift stores and the YMCA with its gyms and youth activities.
But Steve Quirk, director of United Way's Emerging Leaders Initiative, said more can be done. The goal of Des Moines' first Social Venture Partners movement is to end up with 100 partners and a revolving capital fund of $500,000.
"Like any good movement, it starts with a few," said Quirk, who has signed on as one of the group's founding partners. "There is an appetite for this kind of giving in Des Moines. The culture of philanthropy is already here."
New level starts with risk
Teree Caldwell Johnson, chief executive officer of Oakridge Neighborhood
Services, said the Social Venture Partners concept takes giving to a whole new level because it involves a four-letter word that can cause even the most wellintentioned philanthropists to squirm: Risk. She noted that the partners' $5,000 initial investment is more than half of what most Oakridge residents live on each year.

"It's one thing to make an investment in a charity or project you believe in,"
Caldwell Johnson said. "It's quite another for that investment to require you to take a personal risk with people, to help give them a shot by showing them, working with them, so they can make a difference in their own lives. It's really something."
Most of the investing partners, however, said the Social Venture Partners mode of giving simply seems like the right thing to do - even as they admit the concept goes "way beyond" anything they've done before.
Russell Jensen, who owns a consulting firm in Des Moines, said he'd always considered himself "the usual type" of charitable donor, giving to his church and serving on a few nonprofit boards over the years.
"I'd never thought of myself and philanthropy in the same sentence before," said
Jensen, 47. "But now I understand and believe in this model of creating a social enterprise for nonprofits, and I'm in. I'm sold."
Fundraising boosts
As more people learn about SVP and decide to invest in it, Jensen said countless community programs and organizations could get the boost they need to relieve some of their traditional fundraising pressures.
"I don't just expect something to happen from this," Jensen said. "I expect many somethings will happen."
There's plenty of work ahead, though. Quirk and Donaghy said Des Moines'
Social Venture Partners group is just beginning to come together, although they hope to have at least 30 partners ready to go by next spring. Work on the
Oakwood Aquaculture could start by fall.
"Everyone is really interested and excited about this project, which fits in so perfectly with what SVP's mission is," Donaghy said.
"With helping nonprofits, it really comes down to either giving them a fish or teaching them how to fish. Here, we get to do both," he said.