Our story began with two big questions. It was the late 1990s, a period of unprecedented wealth creation coupled with rising inequality.
Three successful Washington, DC, businessmen began to wonder how big investments could produce a different kind of return: a better future for kids in Greater Washington. Instead of seeking profits, they sought answers.
- What would it take to change the status quo for vulnerable children and youth in the Region?
- Could the business world provide a different, innovative approach to social change?
With extensive backgrounds in technology, government, business innovation, and venture capital, Mario Morino, Raul Fernandez, and Mark Warner brought a wide range of expertise to their search. In those early conversations, the trio began reimagining philanthropy in the 21st century. The result was Venture Philanthropy Partners.
We started with a simple idea—that relevant principles of private investing could transform the nonprofit sector. Our founders applied the venture capital model of high- engagement investing to empower great organizations to achieve greater results.
Help great nonprofit leaders and support nonprofit organizations measurably improve the effectiveness of their work and expand their reach.
At the time, few nonprofits emphasized monitoring or outcome evaluation. Morino, Fernandez, and Warner had seen these practices transform businesses in the private sector, and they were convinced that they would do the same for nonprofits. The goal? Help great nonprofit leaders and support nonprofit organizations measurably improve the effectiveness of their work and expand their reach.
With that vision, Venture Philanthropy Partners
opened its doors in June of 2000.
Our work began with the help of 29 incredible visionaries. Along with our founders, 26 other technology and business leaders embraced the vision and generously seeded an initial investment fund of over $30 million. In addition, the Morino Institute, led by Mario, provided funding to create, incubate, and build the essential structures of VPP.
We began making investments in January 2001, and over the course of six years, we grew to 12 investments in total. Our team walked side by side with each investment, building capacity, leveraging assets, developing leaders, and monitoring outcomes. Our investments covered a key range of needs to serve more than 50,000 children and youth across the Region. But we were only getting started.
We entered the next phase of growth and innovation in April of 2007 with a renewed focus on targeting systemic, interconnected problems affecting children and youth across the Region. During this period of growth, Carol Thompson Cole took the helm as VPP’s president and CEO, following Mario Morino. Carol brought a wealth of experience, having worked in multiple senior positions in the Government of the District of Columbia, including City Administrator. At the time, she served as the youngest-ever City Administrator, and remains the only woman to hold the position. She then served the Clinton Administration as a special advisor on the District of Columbia.
As the quantity and quality of our investment partners grew, we recognized a need for more
robust, integrated collaboratives. With over 580,000 low-income children and youth in Greater Washington, the problems are too great for any one nonprofit to tackle alone.
So we innovated.
Raise DC was formed in 2012 to join public, private, philanthropic, and nonprofit leaders together as the District’s comprehensive cradle-to-career initiative – focused on improving educational outcomes for children and youth. The five high-level goals were initially defined by a cross-sector convening of more than 150 stakeholders.
Raise DC’s Change Networks’ collective impact model was based on the premise that to achieve large-scale change throughout the educational continuum, stakeholders across sectors must work together and collaborate on policies for a child to succeed at every stage, from cradle to career.
Raise DC’s work centered on five goals:
- Every child is prepared for kindergarten.
- Every young person graduates from high school.
- Every youth who is not in school reconnects to education/training.
- Every youth attains a postsecondary credential.
- Every youth is prepared for a sustainable career.
In 2020, VPP became Venture Philanthropy Partners + Raise DC, combining the power of our
investment strategy with collective impact to drive greater change in our region. Since then, we have launched Collaborative Action Networks in DC and Fairfax County and continued our traditional investment model with investment partners in Prince George’s County, DC,
and Fairfax County.
Our work is just getting started.
We have ambitious plans for the Greater Washington Region. And we know the best is yet to come.
We’ve led the charge on a different approach to philanthropy. Our model of investment and fostering collaboration is one we hope to see spring up in cities across the country, because we know it works. And as always, we’re tirelessly innovating to see what’s around the corner.
Youth Invest Partners
We have ambitious plans for the Greater Washington Region. And we know the best is yet to come.
We’ve led the charge on a different approach to philanthropy. Our model of investment and fostering collaboration is one we hope to see spring up in cities across the country, because we know it works. And as always, we’re tirelessly innovating to see what’s around the corner.
