PowerPoint Presentation
avpn.asia
AVPN Webinar28 May 2015
Creating Impact Learning from Failure
Holly Piper, CAF Venturesome
Andrew Muirhead, AVPN1Ever Tried. Ever Failed. No matter. Fail
again. Fail better.
Samuel Beckett2
CAF Venturesome: a leader in social investment Offered 36
million12 years of expertise Supported more than 450 organisations
Helped 100 individuals and families to support social investment A
portfolio of 100 clients at any one timeAnd currently operates4
active social investment funds 3What did we look at?Focus on
financial failure, rather than failure of social impact
22 social investments in which we failed to recover some or all
of the capital invested
Remaining question: is there a correlation between financial and
social failure? (our experience suggests that there is!)4What did
we find?People are important!5But contributing factors also
matterHigh risk business models
Weak financial management and monitoring
High proportion of restricted funds
Dependency on a single income source
Exposure to public service contracts
Macro-economic factors6Case study: high-profile social
enterprise with ambitious growth targetsBoard slow to react to
deteriorating situation, struggled to work collaboratively with
founder CEO Charismatic founder CEO resigned following arguments
with the boardCommercial and fundraising expertise but struggled to
build viable business model, unrealistic fundraising
forecastsRapidly deteriorating environment, with public sector
finances severely strainedFinancial controls were reasonably
strong7ConclusionsFlexible and patient approachIncrease the
intensity of supportImprove measurement and analysisWhat have we
learnt?And what will we do?Remain bold, seek to innovate Sector
engagement and collaborationTransparency around successes and
failures
8Find out more and sign up to our
newsletter:www.cafonline.org/supportsocialinvestment
Email:[email protected]
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