Fourth Sector Directory

I am in the process of starting up a for-benefit organization with the details to be announced.

Mission Markets Inc. is an electronic marketplace for the environmental and social capital markets. Our functionality and innovative financial tools allow investors seeking double and triple bottom line returns as well as industry participants, municipalities and investment professionals to cost effectively raise capital, source pre-screened and certified investment opportunities, and access liquidity and vital information all in one centralized location.

Acumen Fund is a non-profit global venture fund that uses entrepreneurial approaches to solve the problems of global poverty. We seek to prove that small amounts of philanthropic capital, combined with large doses of business acumen, can build thriving enterprises that serve vast numbers of the poor. Our investments focus on delivering affordable, critical goods and services – like health, water, housing and energy – through innovative, market-oriented approaches.

Investment funding company for business enterprises that have environmental sustainability missions. Designed to address the ecological risks and opportunities of the investment process in the 21st century.

Good Company Ventures catalyzes start-ups with innovative solutions to big, unmet social needs. Good Company entrepreneurs are offered a great place to work in Philadelphia, a community of like-minded entrepreneurs, and access to a network of capital sources and expert advisors. We champion models that offer investors financial return and social impact.

Develops corporate citizenship and philanthropic efforts that leverage resources and generate maximum community benefit. Works with companies to create, manage and implement corporate foundations and community programs and provide a web-based platform. Provides unique services such as expertise, advice, tools, resources, materials as well as strategic and tactical hands-on support.

An investment firm that increases the flow of capital to innovative ventures creating market-based solutions to inequality and poverty.

Ashoka is the global association of the world’s leading social entrepreneurs—men and women with system changing solutions for the world’s most urgent social problems. Since 1981, we have elected over 2,000 leading social entrepreneurs as Ashoka Fellows, providing them with living stipends, professional support, and access to a global network of peers in more than 60 countries.

With the support of individual investors and our signature partner, Monitor Group, New Profit provides multi-year financial and strategic support to a portfolio of social entrepreneurs working in education, youth development, workforce development, and other areas. In addition, we bring together social innovators from across sectors at the annual Gathering of Leaders.

Investors’ Circle is a network of over 200 angel investors, professional venture capitalists, foundations, family offices and others who are using private capital to promote the transition to a sustainable economy. Since 1992, Investors’ Circle has facilitated the flow of over $130 million into more than 200 companies and small funds addressing social and environmental issues.

Social Investment Forum is the U.S. national nonprofit membership association for professionals, firms and organizations dedicated to advancing the practice and growth of socially responsible investing (SRI). Forum members support SRI through portfolio selection analysis, shareholder advocacy and community investing.

The Skoll Foundation’s mission is to advance systemic change to benefit communities around the world by investing in, connecting and celebrating social entrepreneurs. The Skoll Foundation connects social entrepreneurs with key people and resources through a number of academic, business and community channels which serve to advance the work of individual entrepreneurs, as well as the field of social entrepreneurship as a whole. To further academic study and build knowledge of social entrepreneurship, the foundation launched the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship in November 2003 at the Saïd Business School, University of Oxford.

CDVCA is the network for the rapidly growing field of community development venture capital (CDVC) investing. CDVC funds provide equity capital to businesses in underinvested markets, seeking market-rate financial returns, as well as the creation of good jobs, wealth, and entrepreneurial capacity.

Provides mutual funds that invest in socially and environmentally responsible companies. Calvert has been a leader in the field of sustainable and responsible investing (SRI) for over 25 years, demonstrating that investors may manage risk and enhance long-term portfolio performance by investing in well-governed, sustainable and responsible companies. Calvert believes that responsible management of environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors contributes to sound financial performance which, in turn, can translate into long-term shareholder value.

ACCION International is a microfinance and microlending organization, giving people the financial tools they need to work their way out of poverty. Also, ACCION has two major initiatives pertaining to client education: (1) Financial literacy modules, to help low-income clients better manage their personal and household finances and become informed and effective consumers of financial services; (2) Business training through our Dialogue on Business program – a set of award-winning modules that focus on building the skills of microentrepreneurs.

Community Sector Banking reinvests banking profits into the community sector and facilitates the development of broader and more effective community, government and business partnerships in order to support the broader objectives of its stakeholders. SB offers financial services and consulting advice, specific to community sector organisations, through a collaborative relationship it has with HFS (VIC) – www.hfsvic.com.au.

Underdog Ventures seeks to set a standard of leadership and creativity through its work with high net worth social investors, community-minded CEOs and community organizations. Underdog Ventures has developed a new model of customized community venture capital funds, combined with a model of customized philanthropy. Underdog Ventures partners with a group of investors committed to financial, community and environmental results. We create innovative and customized investments to meet the specific needs of each of our investors, each of whom has a dedicated fund that invests in areas that they choose.

Underdog Ventures acts as a managing partner for each of the funds, structuring, negotiating and managing the investments, while serving as an intermediary between investors and the invested companies. We provide value-added consulting, using the expertise of our in-house staff, advisory board members and investors; perform the due-diligence on companies in which we invest; maintain a strong on-the-ground presence in designated communities; create strategic relationships with non-profits; and provide exit opportunities for our investors consistent with their priorities.

• Providing ACCESS to jobs and workplace benefits;
• Helping achieve financial STABILITY; and
• Creating a path to reach upward financial and career MOBILITY. We work with employers, government agencies and other institutions to improve the quality of jobs and promote the wider availability of work supports. And we invest in communities to spur economic opportunities through our subsidiary, Seedco Financial.

A nonprofit community development loan fund and certified Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI), PCG is operating as the first wholesale loan participation network in our industry. By partnering with mission focused lenders and investors, we provide access to capital for low income people and communities. Our mission is to advance economic justice and opportunity by partnering with organizations who provide access to capital for low income people and communities.

Nonprofit Finance Fund (NFF) is a national leader in helping nonprofits strengthen their financial health and improve their capacity to serve their communities. NFF speaks regularly at workshops, conferences, NFF events and other gatherings around the country focused on nonprofit finance and social enterprise.

GEXSI links charitable donors, entrepreneurs and investors in funding social businesses in low-income regions around the world. We support social entrepreneurs in moving “from Aid to Market”: from charity dependence towards sustainable business. GEXSI provides social enterprises with coaching and development investment services.

Big Issue Invest is a specialised provider of finance to social enterprises or trading arms of charities that are finding business solutions that create social and environmental transformation.

The F.B. Heron Foundation is a private, grantmaking institution dedicated to supporting organizations with a track record of building wealth within low-income communities. The Foundation was created in 1992 with the mission of helping people and communities to help themselves. Towards this end, the Foundation provides grants to and investments in organizations that promote three wealth-creation strategies for low-income families in urban and rural communities in the U.S., including: Home Ownership, Enterprise Development and Access to Capital. Believing that successful efforts reflect the needs and strengths of the people that they serve, the Foundation prefers to support community-based organizations that demonstrate tangible results. In addition to grants, the Foundation seeks to accelerate the level of its assets invested in efforts with strong financial and social returns: Mission-related investments.

RSF is a social enterprise dedicated to using the tools of business to bring about positive, real-world change. Our goal is not just to make money available to progressive and innovative projects; it’s to fundamentally change the way the world works with money. Today, RSF offers investing, lending, and giving services to individuals and enterprises committed to improving society and the environment. We currently have over one thousand clients who are creating enormous positive impact by helping us redirect the flow of money from global capital markets to local ones.

InVenture Fund is a global investment fund and online social network that enables everyday people to put their money to work to change the world. When “InVestors” invest with InVenture Fund, they provide capital to entrepreneurs in developing countries who are being trained in business and community leadership and are committed to reinvesting in their own communities. This combined financial and educational investment, unique among today’s social venture capital marketplace, ensures that the entrepreneurs grow viable businesses that give back—to both their InVestors and the local communities that support them.