This guide is targeted specifically at venture philanthropy (VP) and social investment (SI) practitioners, and more broadly at other social sector funders such as foundations, grantmaking organisations and impact investors who may benefit from understanding the value of the highly engaged approach of venture philanthropy. We use the term venture philanthropy organisations ("VPOs") or "investors" to refer to such social sector funders. Venture Philanthropy works to build stronger social purpose organisations (SPOs) by providing both tailored financing (using the whole spectrum of financing instruments, from grants to debt, equity and hybrid financing) and non-financial support. This manual focuses specifically on non-financial support, which we define as the support services VPOs offer to investees (SPOs) to increase their societal impact, organisational resilience and financial sustainability, i.e. the three core areas of development of the SPO.Social impact



The social change on the target population resulting from an SPO's actions.

Financial sustainability The assessment that an SPO will have sufficient resources to continue pursuing its social mission, whether they come from other funders or from own revenue-generating activities.

Organisational resilience The assessment of the degree of maturity of an SPO, in terms of the degree of development of the management team and organisation (governance, fund-raising capacity etc.)