Alfanar's Venture Philanthropy Approach
What is venture philanthropy?
Venture philanthropy (VP) applies venture capital investment strategies—like high engagement, long-term investment, tailored financing, non-financial capacity-building, and performance measurement—to charitable giving. It is a form of ‘engaged’ philanthropy that aims to build effective, sustainable, organisations with high social impact.
Alfanar recognizes that inadequate funding and limited management capacity hamper innovative charities, nonprofits, and social enterprises in the Arab region from meeting their social goals and achieving financial independence.
Alfanar builds long term partnerships with enterprising organisations that meet our selection criteria. Alfanar provides investees a strategic mix of:
- financial grants,
- regular management guidance, and
- volunteer expert advice
Alfanar tailors its venture philanthropy support to each organisation’s needs. We work with:
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Start-up organisations, to strategically develop and implement their ideas, and
- More established organisations, to devise innovative programmes that ensure both social and financial returns.
Alfanar believes that maintaining an engaged, local presence in the countries we work in is crucial to effectively assessing and responding to each organisation’s needs. It gives us insight into those communities most in need of support, enables us to select the most credible organisations to work with, and helps us build long-term relationships of trust with partners. Since 2004, Alfanar has worked closely with nine partner charities in Egypt using a venture philanthropy approach.
When identifying and selecting partners, we use selection criteria that reflect Alfanar’s mission and core principles.
Company registration number: 5141908 / Charity registration number: 1105048