Introducing the 4.0 Venture Philanthropy Program
In partnership with The Reinvention Lab, powered by Teach For America, 4.0 is excited to announce the launch of our 2021 Venture Philanthropy Program!
What is 4.0’s Venture Philanthropy Program?
The 2021 Venture Philanthropy Program is a six-month pilot for Venture Philanthropists who want to invest in the future of education. ANYONE who wants to support early-stage education non-profits, be it through their time or money, should join. Learn more and get involved by July 15th.
Are you a 4.0 Venture Philanthropist?
⬜ I am problem-focused and solutions-oriented. I believe in innovation as a way to tackle social challenges.
⬜ I put the final beneficiaries at the centre of solutions, recognizing I have much to learn from their expertise by lived experience.
⬜ I am in it for the long-haul and strive for lasting impact.
⬜ I take risks that most others are not prepared to take.
⬜ I strive to measure and manage the social impact of things, paying attention not only to doing what is good but by ensuring I do no harm.
⬜ I am willing to go the extra mile and extend my most precious commodity as a human being — my time — to causes I care deeply about.
⬜ I am comfortable adapting my financial support to the needs and characteristics of the ventures I give to; this is how I share my power and privilege.
⬜ I am proactive about collaborating with others, knowing whatever I give will likely be made stronger and richer by someone else.
⬜ I work to mobilize additional resources to support the social impact ecosystem.
⬜ I uphold high ethical standards.
Just like the 4.0 Angel Syndicate, 4.0’s Venture Philanthropy Program is a pilot that will help us address some of the issues that continue to restrict the access of venture founders and venture philanthropists — access to each other and thus access to high-impact giving.
The Challenge
At 4.0, we invest in talent at the earliest stages, when ideas are still germinating, and there’s still an opportunity for community voices to impact the end result. We provide coaching, curriculum, and cash to anyone working to fight for better education — without gatekeeping.
We are the largest first-check investor in diverse leaders to pilot tomorrow’s learning models. We invest in transformative visions that youth, parents, and educators have for themselves and their communities. Over the last 10 years, 4.0 has grown into a diverse network of almost 1,500 innovators across 45 states. Today, over 300 ventures (schools, programs, and services) are active and serve over a million youth and families across the country.
Our founders graduate ready to grow their impact using what they’ve learned from running high quality pilots in their communities. But we consistently see some key challenges standing in their way:
- Founders miss aligned donors because they are experts in their communities and content areas but often haven’t built cultivation, storytelling, and stewardship skills to attract donors.
- Because almost 70% of total non-profit gifts come from individuals, it is imperative that we find improved ways of tapping into this critical source of funding at the earliest stages of a venture’s development.
- Donors miss aligned founders because they often make a few, late, larger bets in more established leaders and organizations.
- Conventional grant-making and individual giving schemes are not optimized to support early-stage founders.
But at 4.0, we’re convinced that we can do more to address these issues. We need new structures for vetting ventures, decision-making about giving priorities, and how funds get allocated.
The Opportunity
For Founders, 4.0 will provide coaching and support to ensure that 4.0 founders build critical funding relationships and develop their knowledge, tools, and support to cultivate, pitch, and steward the right donors.
For Donors, 4.0 will grow the power and pool of a new cohort of “Venture Philanthropists,” who are highly engaged and adopt a long-term approach to supporting a social purpose organization (foundation, social enterprise, nonprofit, community center, etc.) to help it maximize its social impact.
As this is a pilot, we have more questions than answers but we are going to test, learn, plan, and tweak alongside our venture founders and our venture philanthropists. 4.0 will work with our community of education innovators and support them to build purposeful relationships with venture philanthropists willing to forge a new way forward.
Thus far, interviews with prospective venture philanthropists have identified some clear pain points in relation to finding new investment-ready ventures:
What we’ve heard:
- Venture Philanthropists are unique and don’t want a uniform process that limits their agency when determining how and to whom they give.
- Venture philanthropists want to grow their impact by pooling funds with other like-minded individuals.
- Venture philanthropists don’t have the time to shop around for nonprofits they care about.
Big questions we are asking:
- Can we design options that allow venture philanthropists to engage on their own terms?
- Can we reimagine the Donor Advised Fund so that it is community-owned and facilitates genuine partnerships?
- Can we offer a simple, efficient process for venture philanthropists to share their investment goals and get customized introductions to aligned venture founders?
These big questions are helping us formulate a few ideas we’d like to test as a part of 4.0’s 2021 Venture Philanthropy Program. By joining us, you can help us design and engage with:
- More purposeful ways to pledge time and/or money
- Opt-in programming, such as
- Curated resources
- 1:1 discussions to craft your own investment philosophy
- Community conversations focused on particular issue areas and/or geographies
3. Transparent and accessible displays of giving flows and priorities via a 4.0 Community Advised Fund
4. Technology solutions that facilitate relationship-building and better connect venture philanthropic communities
5. Better mechanisms for venture philanthropists to connect to high-impact giving
6. Easier due-diligence processes supported potentially by participatory grant-making
We imagine education systems that works for each community because they are built by members of the communities they serve. These systems are liberated, accessible, supportive, curious, and designed to thrive and flourish year after year. They are created by, responsive to, and invested in the communities they serve, ever-moving, ever-changing, gaining momentum and power that is channelled back into ourselves and each other.
