Our first fund, the $30+ million Children’s Learning Fund for the National Capital Region, which we launched in April 2001, runs through December 2006. In these first five years, we are developing the capacity within VPP to make investments in nonprofit organizations serving children; function as effective, value-added advisors to our investment partners; and capture and share what we learn as a way of helping to advance the effectiveness of a wide range of nonprofit organizations. We will judge our efforts a success if, by 2006, VPP has achieved the following four goals:

1. VPP has helped its nonprofit partners increase their positive impact on the lives of children.
   • We have entered into 10-12 major, multi-year investment partnerships with nonprofit organizations serving children in the National Capital Region.
   
   
   • Ninety percent of these investment partners are able to demonstrate to us that they have achieved to a reasonable degree many of the organizational milestones and social outcomes that they defined for themselves and that we jointly agreed upon as goals of our investment partnership. As a result, our investors, board, and outside reviewers conclude that the monies spent and efforts expended were worth the investment.
   
   
   • More than half of our investment partners meet a higher standard. These partners a) have achieved the majority of their milestones and social outcomes, and b) are seen by our investors, board, and outside reviewers not only as more effective, durable, and financially sustainable organizations but also as organizations that are contributing to sector change and are well on their way to becoming market leaders in their field.
     
     
2. VPP has become a highly sought after and widely respected organization. Quality nonprofit organizations serving children seek us out as a strategic, engaged, highly leveraged investor, and private donors, foundations, corporations, and intermediaries supporting nonprofit organizations seek us out as an effective, knowledgeable co-investor and collaborator when they invest in child-focused nonprofit organizations.
   
   
3. VPP has coalesced its own donors (and potentially other emerging donors) into a community of engaged investors. We have shared our knowledge and demonstrated the value of our investment approach, and, as a result:
   • More than half of our investors are engaged personally (not just financially) with VPP and one-fifth have made additional investments in organizations that are part of our portfolio.
   
   
   • One-third of our investors report that their philanthropy has been informed by working with and learning from VPP and other VPP investors.
     
     
4. VPP has contributed to the fields of philanthropy and nonprofit management. We are recognized as an emerging voice in national discussions on how to improve grantmaking effectiveness, strengthen the portion of the nonprofit sector that serves children, and meet the needs of children of low-income families. We have helped to foster the growth and development of the “ecosystem” of organizations that support nonprofits serving children here in the National Capital Region. We have brought together our investment partners into a learning network and a strong voice for children.