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REDF in the News 2000 - 2003
Ending Bay Area Homelessness: The Philanthropic Role
Closing the Information Gap: An Information OASIS Published in 2003 The Bay Area Foundation Advisory Group to End Homelessness included a sidebar commending REDF’s development of OASIS in this booklet on solutions for eliminating homelessness. “Some years ago, REDF found that its portfolio of nonprofits expended a great deal of time struggling to pull reports together for funders. More importantly, these organizations often lacked the in-depth data needed to rigorously judge the effectiveness of their own programs and enterprises...OASIS has proven critical not only in enabling easier and more accurate reporting to funders, but also in adapting and creating programs that are even more effective in helping their clients achieve stability.” Changing Lives, Changing Times: The First Decade of Juma Ventures
Published in 2003 “In stepped The Roberts Enterprise Development Fund (REDF) and its...Farber Fellow Program. They saw the Enterprise Center idea as a somewhat risky, unproven concept, but they also saw its potential to get to scale quickly.” Stanford PMP Forum: Business Skills for Social Leadership
Kristen Ace Burns (‘99) Takes the Reins at REDF Published Summer 2003 The Public Management Program of Stanford’s Graduate School of Business conducted an interview with REDF’s President Kristen Burns. “George Roberts has invested over $21 million in REDF since 1997, and he continues to be a huge supporter of our work. This year he has called on us to raise a venture fund to complement the funds that he continues to invest in us and in our portfolio, so obviously this presents some challenges. Fundraising is new to us, but at the same time, it presents an excellent opportunity to get others engaged in our work, to think about expanding our impact,” she responded when asked about the challenges REDF faces. Shelterforce: Enterprising Nonprofits
A Helping Hand Published July/August 2003 Author Ethan Rouen cites REDF in reporting that nonprofit organizations are increasingly turning entrepreneurial. “By providing businesses run by nonprofits with an annual capacity-building grant of $75,000 to $150,000, REDF allows the businesses it assists to hire people with mental and physical disabilities, homeless youths and adults, ex-convicts, and others who find it difficult to acquire decent jobs because of employers’ prejudices. Funded organizations have had both social and financial success. REDF-sponsored organizations have been able to hire hundreds of people every year who normally would not be able to find work.” SEE ARTICLE Faithworks Magazine
Prophets of Profit Published April 2003 Author Daniel Pryfogle wrote a feature article about social entrepreneurs making a difference. “REDF helps nonprofits launch new businesses that have dual bottom lines — money and ministry. The businesses have a passion to help people on the margins and the management savvy to turn a profit.” SEE ARTICLE The NonProfit Times
Earned Income Streams Are Coming Of Age Published February 15, 2003 “Cynthia Gair: ‘We haven’t come into this trying to convince anyone to do this... The agencies have come to us having already started businesses. Some of them didn’t even know they were starting businesses...all of the enterprises are directly related to their agencies’ exact missions. Their income streams are part of what they do to accomplish their missions, and in particular to create opportunities for people who don’t have opportunities.’ ” The NonProfit Times
Reflection and Resolve Published December 15, 2002 “One of REDF’s nonprofit partners reported several changes as a result of the outcomes measurement [known as OASIS]. The organization streamlined all of its process to reduce paperwork by 300%. Staff said their jobs became easier with outcomes measurement because they could more easily find information about clients and more quickly prepare reports for funders.” The NonProfit Times
Walking the Talk Published October 15, 2002 “When The Roberts Enterprise Development Fund (REDF) wanted to measure the social outcomes resulting from investments in nonprofit enterprises...it took the needs of the nonprofits to heart. REDF wanted the outcomes of its evaluation efforts to match the organizations desired outcomes... To address these individual needs, REDF launched...OASIS.” The Grantsmanship Center Magazine
“The Challenges of Becoming a Social Purpose Enterprise” Published Fall 2002 This article originally appeared in the “Practitioner Perspectives” volume of Social Purpose Enterprises and Venture Philanthropy in the New Millennium, published by REDF and available in the Publications Section. The Grantsmanship Center Magazine
Exit Strategies for Venture Funders Published Summer 2002 This article is comprised of excerpts from “When is it Time to Say Goodbye?” published by REDF and available in the Publications Section. @lliance
REDF — The Evolution of a ’Venture Philanthropy‘ Fund Published June 2002 By REDF’s Melinda Tuan “Since 1997, over 1,500 homeless and low-income individuals have been employed by the 20-plus enterprises in the REDF portfolio. REDF tracks each of these individuals for two years after they are first hired to see whether their lives have improved and whether they are less reliant on public services. The data shows that positive change has occurred for employees across every category in every enterprise in the redf portfolio and that most have decreased their reliance on taxpayer-funded social services.” MBA Jungle
GoodWork Published March/April 2002 “Nonprofits can pay more than you might think, but they’re not for the MBA who dreams of a new BMW. Salaries start at about $50,000, though they can run as high as $100,000. The qualifications are simple: ‘You need to be someone who has a passion for the organization’s mission and who’s willing to work with few resources,’ says Melinda Tuan... ‘You won’t have the luxury of hiring a marketing firm when you want to do a marketing study. You’ll have to get on the phone and do the research yourself.” Americans for the Arts: Monograph
Will Venture Philanthropy Revolutionize the Arts? Published November 2001 “Who are the funders? Portraits of some institutional funders practicing venture philanthropy help illuminate how venture philanthropy is supposed to work from the donor perspective.” International Venture Philanthropist Award
Published October 3, 2001 George Roberts was named the first recipient of the International Venture Philanthropist Award. In an effort to bring greater international attention to strategies for evolving and expanding the nonprofit capital market, the Nonprofit Enterprise and Self-sustainability Team (NESsT) hosted the International Venture Philanthropy Forum in Budapest, Hungary, where the award was presented. SEE ARTICLE Honorable Tom Lantos of California
The International Venture Philanthropy Forum Published October 2, 2001 US House of Representatives in Congressional Record, Proceedings and Debates of the 107th Congress of the United States of America, First Session (Washington, DC) SEE ARTICLE Responsive Philanthropy, The NCRP Quarterly
Adventures in Venture Philanthropy Published Spring 2001 “Many VP funders aspire to similar core principles — The Roberts Enterprise Development Fund (REDF)...for example, are role models for SVP — but there are differences in how each constitutes and executes their VP model. VP organizations are far from the first funding organization to focus on outcomes, though some, like REDF’s excellent work on ‘social return on investment,’ are pushing this core principle further than most funders.” More Than Money
Venture Philanthropy in a Learning Organization: An Interview with Melinda Tuan Published Spring 2001 Condensed MtM: Do you have any cautions about the venture philanthropy model for others who may want to use it? TUAN: Be attentive to the power imbalance. MtM: How did you become such a self-reflective organization? TUAN: From the outset, our founding executive director, Jed Emerson, had a commitment to being self-reflective. MtM: What kinds of mechanisms do you use to create trust and self-reflection? TUAN: We publish and share information about what we’ve done wrong. That’s a real trust builder. We also make time to reflect. Foundation News & Commentary
Mutual Accountability and the Wisdom of Frank Capra Published March/April 2001 “The current movement toward building effective, comprehensive client tracking systems and leveraging nonprofit Application Service Providers (ASPs) as operating platforms to support such infrastructures is a promising trend in this area. One example of this is the OASIS project. In partnership with its nonprofit investees — the word investees is used since all support is viewed as a form of investment in a portfolio — this project is sponsored by The Roberts Foundation, the Charles and Helen Schwab Foundation, The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Surdna Foundation, the Phalarope Foundation, and the Penney Family Fund. The OASIS project is working to build a social impact and tracking system capable of telling both funder and investee where the greatest value is being created and on what terms. More such efforts are needed in other regions of the nation and they are no doubt out there waiting to be promoted.” American Foundations: An Investigative History (MIT Press)
Chapter 10: Imagination Published March/April 2001 “[George] Roberts is often asked why, if the goal is to train and employ the virtually unemployable, he doesn’t just support job-training programs in conventional existing businesses? His answer is that nonprofit service organizations are better suited to assist the working homeless because their managers are far more familiar with the myriad personal and psychological problems their employees face.” San Francisco Business Times
Finance Section Published March 23-29, 2001 “The Roberts Enterprise Development Fund...recently lost the leadership of widely respected Jed Emerson as he stepped down as executive director to pursue other opportunities. Emerson has accepted an appointment as senior fellow at the Hewlett Foundation and plans to complete his work as the Bloomberg Senior Research Fellow in Philanthropy at the Harvard Business School in June. Upon returning to the Bay Area, he will also join the Stanford Graduate School of Business as a lecturer and serve as an advisory board member at the nonprofit Roberts fund. Emerson passed the torch on to Melinda Tuan, who became managing director of the Roberts fund last year. Cynthia Gair continues as enterprise development director.” Office.com
How One Foundation Reinvented Itself Published January 18, 2001 REDF featured “Most foundations tend to just give a grant, and they don’t tend to get very involved,’ says...Melinda Tuan. ‘We work off of the business plans of the businesses. We like to call our funding ‘investments,’ not grants, and even though the dollars are all philanthropic, we do our investments based on what the business plan needs.’ ‘It’s really changed my view of how a nonprofit and a foundation can work together,’ says John Brauer, president and CEO of REDF portfolio member CVE. ‘I really do see them as a partner. A lot of the foundation community is asking you to tell them the good news, and if it’s bad news, they want you to rephrase it. With REDF, they want to hear the good, the bad and the ugly.” Harvard Business School: Social Enterprise
Initiative’s Latest Research Delves into Social Capital Markets Published Winter 2000 “REDF invests substantially in a small portfolio of local nonprofits, each a market-based enterprise such as Juma Ventures, which recruits high-risk urban youth to work in Ben & Jerry’s shops. They closely monitor employees’ progress and also try to quantify the costs each represents to society. ‘If employees go off welfare and start earning wages and paying taxes, there’s an inverse relationship. They end up contributing to society,’ [Jed Emerson] says. ‘We are trying to find out what are the investments needed to achieve social value...These nonprofits are competitive enterprises — Rubicon produces high-quality cakes, for example — that just happen to employ folks that the rest of the labor market often won’t hire,’ he says. ‘We don’t operate on a charity basis because if you do it’s difficult to manage a good business.” Crain’s Chicago Business
Nonprofits Look for Cash — Charities Seek More Than Contributions Published December 24, 2000 “A fresh fish business, if the truck breaks down, can’t wait three months to apply for a grant,’ said Melinda T. Tuan, Managing Director of The Roberts Enterprise Development Fund... ‘We really had to adapt our approach to philanthropy to support these growing small businesses.” (The full article is available for a fee on Crain’s Chicago Business.) USA Today
Push For ‘Return’ On Charity Helps Those Who Give, Get Published December 22, 2000 REDF featured “Furthest along this path is... The Roberts Enterprise Development Fund, which has developed a formula that measures the outcomes of the nonprofit businesses it supports with businesslike objectivity. The result is a set of indexes called the Social Return on Investment, which attempts to ‘quantify and monetize’ the output of nonprofit businesses.” Worth.com
Does Philanthropy Need to Change? Published November 27, 2000 Essay by REDF’s Jed Emerson and Paul Shoemaker of Social Venture Partners “The traditional approach of providing initial, one-time support for an innovative idea...is simply not enough... We need more funders like The Roberts Enterprise Development Fund...’ Is venture philanthropy ‘better’ than classical philanthropy? No. Can classical philanthropy function over the next 30 years as it has over the past? Of course not. Will they both continue to add value in a sector able to absorb as much innovation, talent and resources as we can leverage? Absolutely.” New York Times
ACCOUNTABILITY: Putting a Cold, Hard Number on the Value of Good Works Published November 20, 2000 The NonProfit Times
The NPT Power and Influence Top 50 Published August 2000 (Jed Emerson named as one of the Top 50 people “leading and causing shifts in the third sector”) “People are talking about social entrepreneurship and venture philanthropy, Emerson’s been doing it longer than most and has success to show for it. Emerson and The Roberts Enterprise Development Fund remain at the forefront in an area that could dramatically change how nonprofits work in the future.” SEE ARTICLE Enterprise Quarterly
Future Talk Published Summer 2000 Jed Emerson was asked four questions, including: “How do you think the nonprofit community will differ in ten years?” “More people from the private, for-profit sector will move full-time into the nonprofit sector and will challenge current assumptions of traditional nonprofits concerning issues such as accountability, documentation and understanding how resources can be brought to bear to further their efforts.” Making Waves: Canada’s Community Economic Development Magazine
Social Return on Investment Published Summer 2000 (by REDF’s Jed Emerson) “Many people in the nonprofit sector feel that their work is not adequately documented and therefore under-valued. The position of The Roberts Enterprise Development Fund (REDF) is that much of this frustration is due in part to an absence of appropriate measures by which the value created by nonprofit organizations may be tracked, calculated, and attributed to the philanthropic and public ‘investments’ financing those impacts. [REDF has created] a new method of measuring one specific type of impact generated by nonprofit enterprises: socio-economic value.” The Chronicle of Philanthropy
Lessons Learned from ‘Social Entrepreneurship’ Published July 13, 2000 Review of REDF’s publication Social Purpose Enterprises and Venture Philanthropy in the New Millennium “This three-volume set...sheds light on...‘social purpose’ organizations. The common thread in all three volumes is a call to do more with the venture philanthropy model. ‘It is imperative those active in the nonprofit sector move to achieve greater, demonstrated success in our field,’ concludes Jed Emerson.” The Chronicle of Philanthropy
Roberts Fund Puts Its Venture Philanthropy Approach to the Test Published July 1, 2000 REDF featured “The whole point is, how do you engage young people in the mainstream labor market who have been told in that market that they have no value,’ says Jed Emerson. Ms. Tuan says she hopes data from the three-step assessment effort will be publicly available...this fall. ‘We’re not expecting a financial return’ on the groups that the Roberts fund supports, she says. ‘But we certainly hope that the investments we’re making are creating positive change in society.” SEE ARTICLE Forbes
The Radical Philanthropist Published May 1, 2000 Early Stage Giving sidebar “Like venture capitalists, these organizations are seeding promising clients: The Roberts Enterprise Development Fund:
Responsive Philanthropy, The NCRP Quarterly
But is it Smart Money? Published Spring 2000 REDF featured “This article chronicles the relationship between REDF and AND (a nonprofit running social purpose enterprises), recognizing REDF’s role in what would become venture philanthropy.” Community Scale Economics
Youth Industry Published Spring 2000 This article originally appeared in the “Practitioner Profiles” volume of Social Purpose Enterprises and Venture Philanthropy in the New Millennium, published by REDF and available in the Pubications Section. The Wall Street Journal
Networks Link Entrepreneurs and Nonprofits Published March 29, 2000 “Says Jed Emerson...‘A lot of the new wealth is increasingly driven by individuals who’ve made it in their lifetime and want to know what return they’re getting for their social investment.’ With $3 million in funding, The Roberts Enterprise Development Fund...was created...as a forum for ‘getting practitioners and funders together.’ Of such partnership between charities and entrepreneurs, Mr. Emerson...says: ‘When you take social innovation and combine it with sounds management practice, you have the opportunity for incredibly positive social change.” |
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