Creating a Marketplace
"We are proud to support GPN's effort to create a philanthropy marketplace that can reliably provide capital for national expansions of outstanding NPOs. If successful, it will constitute a major advance in the philanthropic sector. Donors around the country are eagerly looking for ways to achieve real impact with their dollars.” — Lowell Weiss, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation |
Overview
Large-scale social progress will be difficult to attain if our society is unable to consistently scale its best social solutions so that they can reach millions of people. Reliable funding is required to achieve scale, but the amount of capital needed for large-scale growth of nonprofit programs has proven to be too much for any one funder to consistently provide (including government). What is required is a collaborative funding mechanism that consistently brings together groups of capital providers to fund major expansion initiatives of proven organizations – i.e. a growth capital marketplace.
GPN is building a nonprofit growth capital marketplace by assembling:
A national network and ecosystem that includes:
- Top-performing nonprofit organizations ready for growth and scaling
- Growth funders in sufficient numbers to provide reliable capital
- Local leaders and funders who create community readiness and local support
- Service providers to assist in growth planning and execution
- Subject matter experts and nominators to help guide program selection
- Standardized investment criteria and measurement of social returns
- Identifying evidence-based nonprofits, and the efficient flow of capital to high-performing initiatives financing on a national and local level
- Standardized financing processes and methods
- A network connecting infrastructure that enables more efficient, lower cost information sharing and collaborative financing
Network Infrastructure
Markets in the for-profit sector have demonstrated the importance of marketplace infrastructure for information sharing, efficient allocation of capital, and low cost collaborative financing. Establishing a network and the infrastructure to promote and finance nonprofit scaling efforts allows faster social progress through shared learning, communication, and joint action around common purposes.
