While many businesses or business founders start philanthropic endeavors, the worlds are often separate, with the business side being purely for profit and the philanthropic side being purely for purpose. The beauty of what The Global Good Fund is doing is that it combines doing good and doing well at the same time; it provides an alternative for the business sector to make a positive impact on society by investing in purpose driven entrepreneurs, pooling collective talents, skills, and resources to grow businesses that benefit people and the community.
The Global Good Fund (GGF) is a nonprofit company built by social entrepreneurs for social entrepreneurs that identifies high-potential leaders and provides the coaching, mentorship, funding, and other resources to accelerate social impact. A third party analysis demonstrated that investing in the leadership of social entrepreneurs enables out sized enterprise growth and impact. GGF’s work centers on five major social issues – health, education, economic mobility, financial education, and the environment.
To date, GGF has worked with more than 200 entrepreneurs across the U.S. and more than 60 countries. These entrepreneurs, known as GGF Fellows, receive an experience personalized for their specific enterprise and leadership needs. GGF assesses each leader’s goals and thoughtfully pairs them with an executive coach and business mentor who leads a 40 million to 60 billion dollar company; this pairing serves as a catalyst to help the emerging entrepreneurs develop as leaders to grow their organizations. GGF also leverages its global community of industry leaders to connect Fellows with highly specialized expertise. GGF is currently in the process of selecting its next cohort of Fellows, which will be revealed in January 2024.
GGF was co-founded in 2012 by CEO Carrie Rich, who was working at Inova Health System at the time. She shared with Inova’s then-CEO and GGF co-founder, Knox Singleton, the idea of pairing up-and-coming leaders, like herself, with veteran business executives, like him, for mentorship, and providing targeted capital to serve as a catalyst for impact. A few weeks later, on Rich’s 26th birthday, Singleton gave her a birthday card with $100, which they grew to $2 million that was used to establish GGF, proving that small donations, if pooled, could have a huge impact. Rich is also the co-author of the best-selling book Impact The World: Live Your Values and Drive Changes as a Citizen Statesperson.
A woman-led organization, GGF is governed by five core values – join forces, do good and be good, live leadership, think flexibly, and act intentionally. According to Rich, these values keep the organization aligned and guide all of its decisions, including choosing Fellows and hiring staff members.
Aside from mentoring emerging social entrepreneurs, Rich is also harnessing impact investing, which is venture capital that aims to deliver market leading financial returns by exclusively backing impact companies. Rich founded the Global Impact Fund (GIF), a $10 million venture capital fund who’s first investment, Esusu, is now valued at 1 billion dollars, with a mission of helping low income Americans establish credit through monthly rental payments. The co-founders of Esusu were GGF Fellows, chosen from thousands of applicants for early philanthropic support, and then received their earliest venture backing from GIF. This example demonstrates the power of the impact ecosystem and what it looks like to take bets on leadership that is otherwise overlooked by traditional markets. GGF is a differentiator for the impact fund by giving it early access to deal flow, though the impact fund is not restricted to investing in GGF Fellows’ companies. GIF is gearing up for its second fund, GIF II, which has the same investment thesis.
GGF recently launched its social impact consulting practice, which is venture backed and adapts its proprietary methods to support clients in their philanthropic and business goals. GGF works closely with clients, both in-person and online, through the entire project lifecycle, including ideation, design, and delivery, with focus on objective measurement and positive business impact. The consulting practice’s first online course, titled Fundraising for Social Impact, teaches participants how to cultivate donors, devise a successful fundraising plan, and deliver an effective fundraising pitch, all in the name of positive social impact.
Rich says that she started GGF and GIF because there is a segment of the market that is often overlooked by traditional philanthropy and investing, and she wants to capitalize on that opportunity. GGF focuses on entrepreneurs who have high potential to effectively solve the greatest social issues of our time. The nonprofit has created a pipeline that presents an incredible opportunity to positively impact the world, through both a philanthropic lens and impact investing. Its endeavors have demonstrated financial returns and social impact, which Rich says makes her incredibly excited for the future.
GGF previously worked with Emory University, on a project supported by the Kauffman Foundation, to study the connection between its strategic activities and expected outcomes in leadership development, enterprise growth and social impact compared to 52 other accelerator programs. Some of the findings included GGF Fellows’ for-profit social enterprises generating three times the revenue of the benchmark peer group, while non-profits were raising three times more philanthropic donations.
“What’s most inspiring to me is that we’ve proven it’s possible to align philanthropy with investment to do good while doing well in business. Most people give philanthropically from one bank account and invest from a different account. Over the past decade, we’ve shown that you can do both simultaneously with terrific outcomes for all parties. I’m proud to be investing in founders who are otherwise overlooked by traditional markets, enabling positive impact in local communities and around the world.”
Credit:Source link
