vpp news
volume five

october 2000
Welcome to the fifth issue of VPP News. This news on Venture Philanthropy Partners, Inc. (VPP) is intended for
VPP investors, partners, advisors, and friends who are all helping advance our venture philanthropy efforts in their
own way. VPP News has two parts: General News that highlights news in philanthropy, improving the
effectiveness of nonprofits, and issues related to improving the lives of children; and VPP Program News to keep
you abreast of VPP’s progress. Please do not recirculate. Also, check out our updated site,
www.venturephilanthropypartners.org, for new program news.
General News
Capacity Building Efforts: What Works
An interesting article in the Council on
Foundation’s Foundation News and Commentary
magazine profiles several foundations’ nonprofit
capacity building efforts and identifies key
ingredients for success including: recognizing the
power differential between the nonprofit
organization and the funder, respecting the
leadership of nonprofit managers and boards, and
supporting the nonprofit organization's ability to
make choices.
http://www.cof.org/foundationnews/0900/howto
do.htm
A Growing Trend: Donating Pre-IPO Stock
Following a growing trend, Social Ecology, a
Seattle-based information technology company for
the nonprofit sector, recently announced plans to
donate 100,000 shares of its pre-IPO stock to ten or
more nonprofit organizations. Michael Gilbert,
founder and CEO of Social Ecology, said, "We
realize that the success of our company will depend
on a strong and growing nonprofit sector. We want
to recognize, and contribute to, some of the
nonprofit organizations that work to ensure that
every community benefits from effective
nonprofits."
http://www.socialecology.com/stockgift/faq.html
Independent Sector
A recent Chronicle of Philanthropy piece discussed
the evolving role of one of philanthropy’s most
powerful coalitions, Independent Sector, which is
comprised of more than 700 nonprofits,
foundations, and corporate grant makers. In an
effort to solidify its role as a public policy leader,
the group is planning to revamp its goals and
internal structure. In other Independent Sector
news, their recent annual conference included a
panel entitled New Economy, New Philanthropy: What
Does it Mean for Grantees?, featuring VPP friends
Kathy Bushkin, senior Vice President & Chief
Communications Officer, America Online; Vanessa
Kirsch, Co-founder, New Profit, Inc., and Lisa
Sullivan, President, Listen, Inc.
http://www.philanthropy.com/ See also
www.independentsector.org .
Program News
Spreading the Word About VPP
Mario Morino recently addressed the annual
meeting of the D.C. Chapter of the National Society
of Fund Raising Executives, where the audience of
development directors and fundraising consultants
from throughout the Mid-Altantic region reacted
very positively to the speech. Mario also recently
served on a panel on philanthropy at a meeting of
the Young Presidents Organization’s Washington
Metro Chapter, along with Eunice, Sargent, and
Mark Shriver, and Kathleen Kennedy Townsend.
Gary Jonas will be serving on a panel on
“Mobilizing Resources to Support the Renaissance
of the District of Columbia: Investing in Youth and
Education,” which is being convened by VPP
partner, The Community Foundation for the
National Capital Region on November 2. Other
panelists include D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams,
D.C. School Superintendent Paul Vance, and
Ardelia Rodriguez of the DC College Access
Program, among others. On October 28, Gary
served on a panel on “The New Philanthropy” at
the Heart of America Foundation’s Building
Community Through Visionary Leadership gathering,
along with Terri Freeman, President of the
aforementioned Community Foundation and Juan
Williams, host of National Public Radio’s
Talk of the Nation.
The Team: Recruiting Efforts
We are pleased to announce VPP’s second hire!
Jennifer Brown Simon has accepted the position of
Partner as of November 1. Jennifer comes to us
from the Mayor’s office, where she served as
Special Assistant for Special Projects, which
included starting a state-of-the-art, public/private
partnership technology high school in a low-income
Washington, DC neighborhood. Prior to that, she
was Executive Director of the Washington Tennis
and Education Foundation where she doubled
revenues in 2 ½ years and was selected as a winner
of the 1999 Washington Post Award for Excellence in
Non-profit Management. She also has served as a
consultant for McKinsey & Co. Jennifer received
her MBA and MPP from Harvard. As an
undergraduate student at Yale she was elected
Captain of the Ivy League Champion Women’s
Varsity Tennis Team.
In other recruiting news, we are expanding our
search to start focusing on a Partner: Strategic
Organizational Assessment to complement the
Investment Team recruitment that is currently
underway. Any suggestions should forwarded to
Alfred Wise at awise@communitywealth.com.
Board News
At the October 3 meeting, the Board approved the
VPP fund structure and elected the Managing
Partner position as a permanent Board member.
The approved fund structure calls for two funds:
The Children’s Learning Fund for the National
Capital Region, a venture philanthropy fund which
will make investments in organizations seeking to
improve the lives of children through development,
learning and education; and the Philanthropic
Innovation Fund for the National Capital Region,
which will provide capital to fund new venture
philanthropy approaches.
VPP’s Formal Launch
We are finalizing the date for an event we are
planning to hold in the mid- March to mid-April
timeframe (changed from the January 17th date that
had been discussed originally) to bring together the
core constituents who have played a role in helping
establish VPP. More information is forthcoming.
Investor/Funding News
We have just received notification from the IRS
approving our 501 (c) 3 public charity status, and
will be moving forward on our fund collection
efforts. We will be in contact with each founding
investor with additional information.
Collaborations


The Philip L. Graham Fund has agreed to be a
co-investor to VPP, which will serve as an
example with which to enlist other foundations
to the efforts of VPP.
McKinsey & Co. has agreed to be a strategic
partner of VPP. Its first effort will be to
produce several case studies showing
successful nonprofit capacity building efforts.
This will be utilized by McKinsey & Co. and
VPP to develop a framework that will be used
as a guideline for VPP investments. The case
studies will be published and disseminated to
the field.
Investment Selection
The VPP directed landscaping effort continues to
identify excellent organizations in the region
serving children around the themes of learning,
development, and education. To date more than 100
organizations have been identified as prospects and
nearly 20 organizations have received significant
analysis and review. There are a number of strong
investment candidates for consideration, all of
which we will be examining further.
If you have questions, comments about VPP News,
please direct them to Suzy Twohig at
stwohig@morino.org.
TO UNSUBSCRIBE, send a note to:
LISTSERV@LISTSERV.MORINO.ORG with
following command in the body of the message:
SIGNOFF VPP-NEWS