Private Equity, Charity …or beneficiaries?

On balance probably all of the above. We at VPF have some misgivings however. Not about the money; not about the amount of pro-bono help given to leverage this money to maximise its impact; and certainly not about the goals of either the individual entity or its merged acronym. The private equity sector will also continue to benefit from its association and contribution.

No, the misgivings are that we may be seeing the creation of another government driven organisation, funded in part by the private equity sector but increasingly involved in distributing funds already allocated toward the areas targeted by ITPEF.

This is not to say that NEETs (not in employment, education or training), the core area of focus for this combined entity, are not a scandalous reflection on a democracy unable or unwilling to equip its constituents with the ability to thrive in today’s difficult economy. Or that the efforts of both Impetus and the Private Equity Foundation are not needed.

But is this really all there is to Venture Philanthropy? Do all private equity firms want to focus solely on the UK? If organisations like Impetus and PEF (and VPF) exist to provide a bridge by which entrepreneurial charities can access funds unavailable by other means, might it not be better to build more bridges and extend this ability?

VPF believes that smaller, innovative and faster-moving charities provide a breath of fresh air to the sometimes fusty world of aid. We also believe that much of this innovation (with a few notable exceptions) comes from challenges to the sometimes massively wasteful efforts of giant international NGOs (see the organisations VPF supports for examples).

Perhaps the private equity sector might look to see how it can recapture some of the early excitement this still relatively new area of Venture Philanthropy promised in the same way that its own members constantly reinvent themselves.

Discuss…