Social Investments in the Long Tail

 

An example of a power law graph showing popularity ranking. To the right (yellow) is the long tail; to the left (green) are the few that dominate. In this example, the areas of both regions are equal.

Over the last few years VPF has been testing the waters of social investment. Whilst not explicitly one of our grant-making criteria, a high proportion of our charities have tended to demonstrate the ability to generate a return on investment.

The sums we have invested are not large - £450,000 in total in three organizations with two of these investments for only £50,000. Such small investments would not have been possible without the ability to use the pro-bono skills of our financially-literate member community (the cost of legal and financial expertise would have smothered any benefit) and the preparedness of our investment supporters to contemplate losses*.

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Engage - VPF News (Aug 2013)

Click here to read the latest inspiring stories from VPF's portfolio of innovative social ventures, and update yourself of new members, initiatives and opportunities across the VPF network.

This is why we support what we support

At the risk of blogging about blogs blogging about a press article, Afrikids show what it is we at VPF look for and the punchiness that often goes with it...Afrikids statement of the bleeding obvious

Homeless International – from dependency to sustainability thanks to VPF (by Larry English)

A key focus of several of VPF's portfolio ventures is on developing innovative and sustainable sources of financing, and breaking the cycle of dependency on handouts wherever possible. Homeless International is one such venture. HI turns slums into decent housing - assets that can then be used as collateral to attract further financing - by funding and tutoring partner organisations around the world. Since the beginning of HI's partnership with VPF, CEO Larry English has been shifting the organisation's emphasis from pure grant-making to providing loans that are recycled (see chart above), making the organisation sustainable and vastly extending its overall impact. Here he discusses how HI's relationship with the business world through VPF has helped revolutionise HI's outlook and increase its impact.

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The Growing Pains of Social Entrepreneurs: VPF CEOs featured in the Entrepreneur Handbook

All through summer 2013, VPF's social entrepreneurs will be featured regularly in David Friel's wide-ranging online encyclopedia 'The Entrepreneur Handbook', sharing their experiences of the challenges they faced in successfully giving life to their innovative solutions to perennial social problems.

EH is the go-to site for advice, connections and practical insights for ambitious entrepreneurs from either side of the profit divide. This series thus fits perfectly with VPF's mission to help private sector innovators share experience and expertise amongst their entrepreneurial cousins in the social sector. It strengthens our efforts to demonstrate that entrepreneurs are entrepreneurs, regardless of which markets they seek to disrupt.

Read the first installment, featuring incredibly fast-growing and recently award-winning VPF social enterprise PEAS and its founder CEO John Rendel here.