New Profit
[ ] is a nonprofit
social innovation
Social innovations are new social practices that aim to meet social needs in a better way than the existing solutions,Howaldt, J./ Schwarz, M"Social Innovation: Concepts, research fields and international trends" IMO international monitoring, 201 ...
organization and
venture philanthropy
Venture philanthropy is a type of impact investment that takes concepts and techniques from venture capital finance and business management and applies them to achieving philanthropic goals. The term was first used in 1969 by John D. Rockefeller ...
fund based in
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
,
Massachusetts
Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...
.
History
New Profit was founded in 1998 by social entrepreneur
Vanessa Kirsch. After starting and growing two nonprofits—Public Allies and the Women's Information Network—Kirsch took a year to travel the world, interviewing social entrepreneurs and citizens across 22 countries. Through this experience, she came to understand that the nonprofit sector lacks sufficient access to second-stage
growth capital
Growth capital (also called expansion capital and growth equity) is a type of private equity investment, usually a minority investment, in relatively mature companies that are looking for capital to expand or restructure operations, enter new mark ...
, locking social entrepreneurs and their funders into a start-up phase mentality. She determined that in order for social entrepreneurs to have the greatest possible impact, they needed access to financial resources that could allow them to sustain and grow their program models.
In 1996, she began laying the groundwork for a venture philanthropy fund that would provide social entrepreneurs and their organizations with funding and valuable strategic consulting services. After over a year of research and development with a team of social entrepreneurs, academics, and philanthropists, Kirsch and a partner founded New Profit in 1998. With support from Monitor Group and under Kirsch's continued leadership, New Profit has worked with 34 nonprofit organizations to date.
New Profit was based in Cambridge, MA from its founding in 1998 until a move to Boston in April 2013.
Mission and model
New Profit's mission is to help innovative social entrepreneurs and their organizations dramatically improve opportunities for children, families, and communities. New Profit works to fulfill this mission through two related approaches:
1. Directly supporting a group of social entrepreneur-led nonprofits with multi-year grants and strategic support.
2. Developing field-wide initiatives through the Action Tank that seek to help all social entrepreneurs and their organizations impact the social problems they seek to solve.
Direct support to organizations
New Profit provides grants to organizations that address issues in education, workforce development, public health, or poverty alleviation through its portfolio. Once a nonprofit organization has received funding, New Profit focuses on support efforts that help integrate financial and strategic resources to help the organization develop and grow into a sustainable program.
A staff member at New Profit works with each organization that New Profit funds as a portfolio manager. This person takes a board seat and acts as a day-to-day advisor to the organization, building a partnership with the social entrepreneur and creating a plan for future projects that are tailored to the organization's needs. The strategic support each nonprofit receives assumes a variety of forms, from refining the organizations’ social change model and helping find talent, to developing and coaching the board. In addition, New Profit also offers strategic growth planning and executive coaching for the social entrepreneur, and connects each nonprofit with pro-bono consulting services from Monitor Group.
With funding awarded in July 2010 through the federal Social Innovation Fund, New Profit developed the Pathways Fund, through which it makes grants to organizations that focus on helping disconnected youth ages 18 to 24. The Pathways Fund will seek to improve high school completion rates, increase college enrollment and persistence, and better prepare youth to enter the workforce in select geographies across the U.S.
Action Tank initiatives
In 2004, as it began to see program results from its first group of supported nonprofits, New Profit created the Action Tank in an effort to work beyond the organizations it directly funds. The Action Tank has initiatives in three focus areas:
* Federal Policy: Through an initiative called America Forward, a nonpartisan coalition of nearly 50 nonprofit organizations, New Profit seeks to advance a policy agenda and create an infrastructure for social entrepreneurs and government to act together to grow of effective nonprofit organizations.
* Events: Through its annual event, the Gathering of Leaders, New Profit brings together leaders from the public, private, philanthropic, and nonprofit sectors to develop new ideas, relationships, and resources and help build stronger nonprofit organizations.
Impact
New Profit tracks the progress of organizations it funds against five major focus areas—impact and innovation, growth, leadership and governance, organizational strategy, and metrics. To measure this progress, New Profit has developed a Growth Diagnostic Tool that it uses to assess the development of each nonprofit it funds and to then focus additional support where it is most necessary.
Within the portfolio of nonprofit organizations it supports, New Profit targets a 30 percent compound annual growth rate for revenue and a 40 percent compound annual growth rate for clients served. In 2009, New Profit reported that its portfolio of supported organizations achieved a 35 percent compound annual growth rate for revenue and a 40 percent compound annual growth rate for clients served.
Current investments
*
Achievement First
Achievement First is a charter school network in the United States. Achievement First operates schools in Connecticut (beginning with Amistad Academy in New Haven in 1999 along with other schools in New Haven, Bridgeport and Hartford), New York C ...
* BUILD
*
College Possible
*
College Summit
*
Eye to Eye
*
Family Independence Initiative
*
First Place for Youth
*
Health Leads
Health Leads is a national non-profit organization based in Boston with a stated vision of "health, dignity, and well-being for every person, in every community." The organization runs community-based programs and learning initiatives across th ...
*
iMentor
*
Knowledge Is Power Program
The Knowledge is Power Program, commonly known as KIPP, is a network of free open-enrollment college-preparatory schools in low income communities throughout the United States. KIPP is America's largest network of charter schools. The head o ...
(KIPP)
*
LIFT
Lift or LIFT may refer to:
Physical devices
* Elevator, or lift, a device used for raising and lowering people or goods
** Paternoster lift, a type of lift using a continuous chain of cars which do not stop
** Patient lift, or Hoyer lift, mobil ...
*
Management Leadership for Tomorrow
Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a Government agency, government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business.
Management includ ...
(MLT)
*
National College Advising Corps
*
New Leaders
New Leaders is an American non-profit organization that aims to recruit and train school leaders who focus on improving education results for poor and minority students. It also aims to promote system-level policies and practices that provide supp ...
*
New Teacher Center
The New Teacher Center (NTC) is a national non-profit organization in the U.S. dedicated to strengthening the practice of beginning teachers. The NTC conducts research, develops and administers induction and mentoring programs for new teachers an ...
*
Peace First
*
Peer Health Exchange
Peer Health Exchange is a 501(c)(3) health education organization based in Oakland, California. The organization trains college student volunteers to teach skills-based health education in public high schools in low-income communities that lack c ...
*
Single Stop USA
*
Teach For All
*
The Mission Continues
*
Turnaround for Children
* Year Up
*
YouthBuild USA
YouthBuild is a non-profit organization which on a voluntary basis provides education, counseling and job skills to unemployed young American adults (between ages 16 and 24), generally high school dropouts. There are 273 YouthBuild programs in ...
Past investments
*
Building Educated Leaders for Life (BELL)
*
Citizen Schools
Citizen Schools is an American nonprofit organization that partners with middle schools across the United States to expand the learning day for children in low-income communities. Its stated mission is "educating children and strengthening commu ...
*
Computers for Youth
*
Freelancers Union
Freelancers Union is a nonprofit organization based in New York City that provides advocacy, programming and curated insurance benefits for freelancers through partnerships. The organization dessiminates information through monthly meetings. Rafa ...
*
Girls for a Change
Girls For A Change (GFC) is a US 501(c)3 organization based in San Jose, California, that seeks to empower girls and young women by inviting them to design, lead, fund and implement social change projects that tackle issues girls face in their o ...
*
Jumpstart for Young Children
*
Kids Voting USA
*
Rare Conservation
*
Right To Play
*
Stand for Children
*
Teach For America
*
Upwardly Global
Upwardly Global is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that helps immigrant and refugee professionals rebuild their careers and find meaningful employment in the United States. Established in 2000, Upwardly Global is the first and longest-serving ...
References
{{reflist
Non-profit organizations based in Boston
Organizations established in 1998
1998 establishments in Massachusetts