Venture Philanthropy Partners (VPP) is a philanthropic investment organization that helps great leaders build strong, high-performing nonprofit institutions. It concentrates money, expertise, and personal contacts to improve the lives and boost the opportunities of children and youth of low-income families in the National Capital Region.
Whom We Support
We invest in high-potential nonprofit organizations
that are serving the core developmental, learning, and educational
needs of children from low-income families in the National
Capital Region. We focus on philanthropic investment opportunities
that have the greatest potential to improve the lives of
children and that can help us demonstrate our strategic,
engaged, and highly leveraged approach.
How We Work
When we enter into an investment partnership, we aspire to serve as a trusted advisor, helping great leaders
build stronger, more effective, more enduring organizations
to better serve children. Our investments are not intended
to fund program costs. Instead, the focus of every VPP investment
is helping leaders build the strength of the organization
behind their programs, often referred to as "organizational
capacity." We support our portfolio organizations
through large-scale, multi-year funding; through the expertise
of our in-house investment team; and through the leverage
of a wide network of outside contacts, resources, and professional
advisors.
Origins
In June 2000, Venture Philanthropy Partners (VPP) was created. Our co-founders—Raul Fernandez, Mark Warner, and Mario Morino—recruited 26 other technology and business leaders and several foundations to join together and contribute more than $30 million to capitalize VPP’s first investment fund. The Morino Institute, led by Mario Morino, provided separate funding to create, incubate, and build the organization and its capacity. These 29 founding investors united behind a bold vision to alter the status quo for children in need of opportunity and, at the same time, create a different, innovative approach to philanthropy.
