Fourth Sector Directory

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.

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.

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.

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.

Brand Indigo is a part sustainability-centric consultancy,part think-tank and part social venture capital firm with a self-sustaining hybrid business model.

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.