Our Why
The Venture Philanthropy Fund was established to propel innovative ideas and the passionate founders that make bring them to life.
Our mission is to surround these important ideas with our experience, insight and care to shepherd them through the challenges that new companies face.
We believe together we can drastically increase their likelihood of sustainable success.
"Vision & passion are water behind a dam that only execution can open"
Our How
The Catalyst for Good program will build infrastructure and capacity for small nonprofits with unique solutions to community problems.
We’ll customize the package of services we deliver to suit the NPO’s needs. This could mean building technology infrastructure, growing social media presence, tuning its pitch to attract donors or building all the nuts and bolts operational functions every organization needs.
In addition to tangible deliverables, C4G knows growing insight and expertise is essential to sustainable success. Social Venture Partners brings education content from its powerful incubator program to increase your business acumen.
"It's rare to bring together so much senior talent around a startup. It speaks to the impact we all feel the right initiative can have"
We’ll deliver SVP content through a unique component of the C4G program: our network of local experts. These professionals are dedicated to improving our community. Each expert will spend 2 hours for 1 on 1 coaching to sharpen skills well as share their wisdom from years of service.
A Catalyst for Good engagement typically runs 3 months to complete five distinct program sections.
Mindset & Direction
Whether inspired by personal experience or observed need, the catalyst for your nonprofit was not leadership or culture, but producing good. To last, however, you most articulate your vision into culture, a culture that flows from your leadership. Who are you, what do you do, and why do you do it? How you answer these questions will be the path you lay in front of you. This program is about building your path in such a way that others will walk alongside you.
Effective workplaces are inclusive, collaborative, inspiring, and encouraging. Team members are treated with respect, are encouraged to take reasonable risks, and feel like their contributions are important and impactful. Effective workplaces produce effective work. Phase 1 is about getting into the right mindset and starting in the right direction.
- Culture & Engagement. Ruth Ross. Engagement Expert
- Leadership. Catherine Cheshire. Executive Coach & Leadership Consultant
- Diversity. Nadine Smith. CEO, Equality Florida
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Onboarding
- Meet team, introductions, program review, entry data review.
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Foundations.
- Develop and/or review mission & purpose statements. Establish core values and an articulate the culture position of your organization both internally and externally
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Strategy & Goals.
- Conduct short and long term business planning. Establish goals and measurements.
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501(c)(3) Workshop.
- Gather & organize documentation required to file in the State of Florida and the City of St. Petersburg. Develop board & fiscal management
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Board & Fiscal Management workshop.
- Review nonprofit best practices & regulations pertaining to oversight boards, revenue, and other pertinent topics.
Packaging & Launching
Phase 2 will shape the way the world sees you. There are more voices than ever competing for attention. To earn engagement you’ve got to get in front of as many eyes as possible and tell a story that stays in as many minds as possible. We’ll articulate you mission in a compelling way and build strategy to gain exposure through a variety of channels. Consistency is critical and a brand/messaging guide will help you stay on point going forward.
This is a deliverable heavy phase that makes sure you’ve got a solid website, branding, social media & marketing strategy.
"Your company’s position should be an authentic reflection of you that the community understands
and trusts."
- Positioning & Branding. Joe Hamilton. Partner, St Petersburg Group
- Social Media & Social Selling. Tracy Kennard. Owner, My Virtual Footprint
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Branding & Positioning
- Shape how the community feels when they encounter your nonprofit.
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Digital presence.
- Develop brand materials as needed. May include website, logo, letterhead, business cards, tri-fold brochure
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Social Media.
- Set up social media presence. Build strategy + author posts for Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and others social media platforms.
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Guerilla Marketing.
- Discover free and low cost ways to get attention through partnerships, earned media and content marketing.
Strategy & Revenue
Fundraising is out, development is in. Raising money is a relationship game, and the success of your organization depends on your mastery of it. Being genuine in your passion for your cause and in your interactions with your network will do you well. Attend events, meet new people, follow up, reconnect, network. Everything you do personally is a representation of your organization and of your brand.
In this phase, revenue is our focus. That means building and sustaining relationships with donors. It could also include a grant writing plan or traditional revenue through a good or service your nonprofit provides.
"Raising money is a relationship game. Donors give to organizations that move and inspire them."
- Mission & Money. Paul Wilborn. Executive Director, Palladium Theatre
- Government / Grants
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Development & Networking Workshop
- Develop effective elevator / speed pitch & associated PowerPoint deck utilizing templates, encouraging promotion & clarity of value proposition Grant Writing Workshop.
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Grant Writing Workshop
- Understand the grant writing process, develop skill sets and knowledge base with a goal of undertaking grant writing efforts independently
Performing & Growing
Great ideas are only as effective as the execution by your nonprofit to deliver the desired outcome. The focus of this phase is on the nuts and bolts of running your organization. We’ll talk about banking, money management, procedures, policies, protocols, goals and measurements. It may not be the most exciting stuff you’ve ever worked on, but it is critical to your success.
"The best ideas in the world don’t succeed without a leadership team versed in effective operations, management, and accounting."
- Operations. Paul Craig. Operations Consultant
- Banking. Ryan Williams. Bank OZK
- Accounting. Stephanie Heredia. Taxes Tampa
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Operations Workshop
- Build on Operations Presentation in development of standardized processes for business functions including accounting, financial documents, and other applicable functional areas.
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Best Practices Workshop
- Develop pilot project model if applicable, best practice model if applicable, logic model if applicable, evidence-based practice model if applicable.
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Goals & Measurements Workshop
- Establish targets for operations and methods to measure your success. Create reports for donors and other stakeholders.
Sustaining & Innovating
This phase pulls everything covered in the program together. We’ll get a business plan wrapped up and polished, review developed materials like pitches, pitch decks, and plans, and get ready for the Catalyst Expo. We’ll get some metrics together and see what kind of tangible progress we can show over the duration of the program. Most importantly, we’ll cover any questions you still have, provide you with info regarding ongoing support after program completion, and talk specifics about the final event.
- Technology. Dzuy Nguyen. COO, Big Sea Digital Marketing
- Legal. Rochelle Walk. Managing Partner, AEGIS Law
- Technology Workshop
- Understand your technical needs and capabilities. Find tech solutions where applicable and fine tune what you're already using.
- The Board
- A good board is critical to a good nonprofit. You'll learn how to build the right board framework and recruit the right board members.riting Workshop.
- The Law
- With most of your infrastructure in place, our legal partners will look over your organization for any risk areas and answer your legal questions.