Private pay-for-success donation fund supporting resilience and recovery efforts post-COVID-19 for over 800 Bay Area residents
Three Bay Area nonprofit organizations selected to receive donations -- 10,000 Degrees, Mission Asset Fund and Rivet School
Donors include Stephanie DiMarco, Katie Hall, Julia Hartz, Katie Schwab Paige, Liebe Patterson and other prominent philanthropists
SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 19, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- NPX, a company transforming how nonprofits are funded, today announced their inaugural Bay Area Donor Impact Fund (“DIF”), a $4.5+ million philanthropic fund to incentivize quantifiable, long-term impact for underserved communities struggling to stabilize in the wake of COVID-19.
Twenty-three women philanthropists came together to pioneer this new funding model in the Bay Area. Together with NPX, they selected three nonprofits to receive donations to drive upward economic mobility for over 800 people -- 10,000 Degrees, Mission Asset Fund (MAF) and Rivet School.
“I was drawn to the Bay Area DIF because I want to meaningfully give back to this great city where I’m raising my family and building my company,” said Julia Hartz, Co-Founder & CEO of Eventbrite. “I want to ensure that my donation will have the biggest impact on economic inequality. NPX’s DIF model is disrupting the status quo by injecting unprecedented accountability and transparency around results to drive real change. I am proud to be a part of this group of women leading the way.”
The DIF model is easily replicable and could be deployed in every state in America where donors want to drive results. NPX also announced today the first-ever DIF in Colorado with 13 prominent foundations and philanthropists, including The Anschutz Foundation, Telluray Foundation and The Denver Foundation.
“The Bay Area DIF is an important milestone towards our goal to unlock more capital, more data and ultimately, more impact, for the nonprofit sector,” said Catarina Schwab, Co-Founder & Co-CEO of NPX. “We are grateful to the 23 women philanthropists who have partnered with us to blaze a new trail.”
A Groundbreaking Philanthropy Model
The DIF is a private pay-for-success donation fund that releases donations based on results.
Traditional or “public” pay-for-success models such as social impact bonds have been used by innovative governments around the world, but to date few private philanthropists have used the model to make performance-based donations.
Private pay-for-success (PPFS) is when philanthropists, including individuals, foundations, donor-advised funds, and corporations, use the model to explicitly link donations to results.
To make it easy for donors to put this model into action, NPX created the DIF. It is different from other philanthropy models in two ways. First, donations from the fund are released only if impact is achieved. Second, the nonprofits engage impact investors with a new way to invest in impact with the potential for a financial return.
The DIF releases donations after impact happens, instead of donating upfront. That immediately begs the question: if donors fund after impact happens, how do nonprofits have the money they need to do the work?
That’s where impact investors come in. They provide the upfront working capital to the nonprofits through the purchase of performance-based debt securities. The impact investors are paid over time by the nonprofit issuer from funds it receives from the DIF if and when impact is achieved.
Simply put, results drive the flow of funding. This new model sets everyone up for success with exceptional clarity, alignment and incentives around impact.
Bay Area DIF
The Bay Area DIF closed on May 15, 2020 and immediately began a rigorous nonprofit selection process. To address the medium and long-term fallout of COVID-19 and the resulting recession, NPX evaluated more than 50 nonprofits in three economic mobility categories: barriers to work (food, housing, childcare, transportation), education and employment (post-secondary completion, job training and placement) and financial security (saving, borrowing, financial planning).
Three nonprofits were selected to receive performance-based donations over the next five years as they achieve their impact goals -- 10,000 Degrees, MAF and Rivet School. The donation amount varies based on what each nonprofit needs to run its program, and measure and audit impact.
The Bay Area DIF has the potential to drive upward economic mobility for over 800 people in the Bay Area.
- MAF aims to help 615 primarily Hispanic/Latinx immigrants that are credit invisible establish a credit score for the very first time through innovative Lending Circles.
- 10,000 Degrees aims to support 160 low-income community college students transfer to 4-year colleges and complete baccalaureate degrees. Graduates will also receive $1,000 upon receiving their degree to help pay down student debt.
- Rivet School aims to support 50 low-income students, mostly working adults & parent learners, graduate with a baccalaureate degree through an innovative, competency-based online degree program. Graduates will also receive $1,000 upon receiving their degree to help pay down student debt.
“As COVID-19 raises the bar higher every day for our students, we are focused on meeting the increased needs of thousands of students so that they can stay engaged with their education and graduate from college,” said Kim Mazzuca, President & CEO of 10,000 Degrees. “This unique and performance-driven model by NPX is transforming philanthropy from a purely transactional relationship to a true partnership, where investors, donors and supporters alike are an integral part of mission-based solutions that have sustainable impact.”
“NPX applauds these organizations for leading the way in measurement, evaluation, accountability and transparency. They’re the first of many to be funded based on results,” said Lindsay Beck, Co-Founder & Co-CEO of NPX. “This new funding model is driving significant behavior change amongst donors, investors and nonprofit organizations -- behavior change that will result in better outcomes for more people in the Bay Area and beyond.”
DIF PARTICIPANTS
Donors
- Heidi Castelein
- Jung Choi
- Stephanie DiMarco
- Camilla Norman Field
- Tomoko Fortune
- Linda Gruber
- Katie Hall
- Julia Hartz
- Katherine Kennedy
- Anne Dickerson Lind
- Alison Hall Mauze
- Noelle Montgomery
- Hadley Mullin
- Leslie Olrich
- Katie Schwab Paige
- Liebe Patterson
- Anne-Marie Peterson
- Temple Schauble
- Jessica Spaly
- Diana Strandberg
- Sequoia Taylor
- Sue Tunnell
- Lisa Blackaller Williams
NPX Economic Mobility Team
Subject matter and M&E experts working with NPX to create the DIF nonprofit portfolio.
- Sara Bayless, Director OMNI Institute
- Didi Fahey, Founder QREM
- Ben Mangan, Managing Director at Arabella Advisors, Senior Fellow at Aspen Institute, Faculty at UC Berkeley, Haas School of Business
- Neil Phillips, Co-Founder & CEO Visible Men Academy and Founder Visible Men Impact Network
- Katherine Rockwell, Philanthropy and Social Impact Consultant
- Tracey Stewart, Community Investment Strategies @ Crestone Innovations
- Kimberly Wicoff, Principal Wicoff Consulting LLC
Partners
- Anna Pinedo, Mayer Brown LLP
- Tomer Inbar, Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP
- Daniel Figueredo, BPM LLP
Press Contact
Larkin/Volpatt Communications
Michael Volpatt
michael@larkinvolpatt.com
415-994-8864
About NPX
NPX is changing the way nonprofits are funded by explicitly linking funding with impact performance. Learn more at www.npxadvisors.com.