It’s no surprise that Mission Investors Exchange, a project of Philanthropy Northwest, is applying venture capital concepts to increase the capacity and effectiveness of charitable endeavors.
The organization is located in Seattle, within a few miles of Microsoft Corporation’s Redmond, Wash., headquarters. Bill Gates, Chairman of Microsoft, not only pushes innovation in the computing world, but he and his wife, Melinda, are keenly interested in developing innovations in the way charitable endeavors are financed.
The exchange takes an investment-style approach to increasing the effectiveness of building charitable capital. The organization’s website gives charitable investors an extensive library with an impressive tool kit, including reports, case studies, and a list of consultants with experience in mission investing. The exchange also provides charitable investors contract templates, including those for outlining charitable investing policies. Participants in the exchange include over 200 foundations.
Trevor Mundel, president of Global Health, for The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, says the objective is also to “ensure that fledgling companies with promising products can receive sufficient support to continue their work.”
It’s apparent that The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has successfully transferred lessons gleaned from the culture of venture capitalists, and moved those concepts over to the nonprofit side.
This is truly an ingenious approach to increasing charitable capacity, in a time when many foundations are emerging from a devastating round of cuts in charitable support. It’s also an effective way to ensure a stream of capital is available to lay the groundwork for future commercial innovations in the U.S.