The European Venture Philanthropy Association (EVPA) and Asian Venture Philanthropy Network (AVPN), with more than 754 members in 52 countries, have started to mobilise over $7 billion to drive social change and impact across the world.
The two networks of capital providers in Europe and Asia underpin their philanthropic efforts on the realisation that rapid growth and success are essential in advancing social investment.
Motivated by the fact that goodness is the business of every organisation in advancing social investment, the two organisations have set up the African Venture Philanthropy Alliance (AVPA), a pan- African membership network, to advance social investment in Nigeria and other African countries.
At an intercreative session with all the stakeholders last week, Oluwatoyin Adegbite, executive director of AVPA in the West African sub-region, listed the benefits of the network to include partnerships, value-added programmes, regular convening, knowledge centre, member services as well as global links.
“Nigeria is now overtaking India in terms of poverty, and the African continent is behind others in terms of social impact,” Adegbite said.
Throughout the world, social investment has proven to be a powerful way to generate social impact, by enabling individuals and organisations with high aspirations for making a difference to deploy their resources with discipline, transparency and accountability.
Social investment is also a proven approach that stimulates social innovation and new solutions to major problems, helps grow the scale of high-impact non-profit organisations, and enhances deal flow for sustainable impact investments.
With the myriad of social changes faced by Nigeria and other African countries, conditions are ripe for social investment to play a major role in improving lives in Africa. A membership network of capital providers is a powerful way to expand the amount of capital being deployed and enhance its effectiveness in getting results.
Other stakeholders in attendance included Piet Colruyt, founder of SI2 Fund; Jamy Goewie, community and market development; Margret Olele, executive director, American Business Council, among others.
According to the leadership team of AVPA, membership is opened to organisations with resources in the form of financial, human and/or intellectual capital commitment to deploy that capital effectively to generate significant social impact and a belief that their efforts can be strengthened by collaboration and/or strategic partnerships with and learning from others.
Furthermore, membership is drawn from private investors, high-net-worth individuals/families, family foundations, corporate foundations, corporations, professional services firms, universities and research institutions, government and government-related agencies.
AVPA serves as a catalyst and facilitator to enable capital providers to realise their full potential for impact. It will do this by creating a platform for attracting and connecting cross-sectoral organisations and people who desire to engage in social investment; providing value-added services that enhance their effectiveness in deploying capital to create impact, and linking efforts in Africa to similar networks of like-minded parties in Asia and Europe.
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