3 Tips For Funding Your Social Venture

It’s an admirable idea to give back to the world, but like everything else, social ventures come with a cost. If you are looking to build up this type of venture then these 3 tips will be integral to your success!

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If you think starting a successful social venture is simply a matter of finding a way to aid a social cause, think again. Increasingly, social entrepreneurs are required to show how they intend to sustainably carry out that mission. In other words, they need money.

If you haven’t already begun exploring revenue models, you’d better get cracking. Here are three additional tips for making a social venture more appealing to investors:

Have a sustainability plan.

“The quality of your plan is fundamental,” says Hodgson. “Doing a solid job of thinking through all of the aspects and resources required for success and having a sensible strategy for accomplishing the plan is what any investor is going to look for in the impact-investing field or the for-profit field.” He suggests stress testing the plan with trusted advisors who will ask probing questions.

Measure your social impact.

Just as important as revenue is to impact investors, your social mission is also top of mind. As such, they’ll be checking to see how you’ll measure the impact that your organization will have in delivering on its social goals. “That measurement of impact is generally a weak point of many organizations,” says Hodgson. Though it can be tough to measure softer goals like improving blighted communities or preventing deforestation, it’s nonetheless important, he adds.

Tap into the impact-investing community.

Galinsky recommends joining networking groups and membership organizations like Social Capital Markets (SOCAP) and the Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN) and attending their conferences. There’s a group called TONIIC, Opportunity Collaboration and the Unreasonable Institute, which is an accelerator for high-impact entrepreneurs. Through these various groups, you’ll also find out when there’s a new fund from impact-investing outfits like City Light Capital in New York and Gray Ghost Venturesin Atlanta, adds Galinsky.

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