April 1994: Mario Morino founds the Morino
Institute and initiates an internal discussion about
the merits of starting a social venture fund.
June 1994 through December 1998: The Morino
Institute enters into a series of community partnerships,
makes significant grants, supports those grants with non-financial
resources, and creates new nonprofit organizations—all
helping the Institute gain at least a rudimentary understanding
of the nonprofit sector, the issues facing nonprofit
organizations serving children, and the difficulties leaders
face in trying to grow and develop their organizations.
October 1998: Morino Institute launches
the Youth
Development Collaborative (YDC), a pilot project to
help four nonprofit organizations in the District
of Columbia build children’s learning programs enhanced
with state-of-the-art technology, infuse technology throughout
their operations, and increase their capacity to deliver
quality services to children. (Over its two-year life, the
pilot strongly confirms the value of investing in organizational
capacity.)
November 1998: Mario Morino and the Morino
Institute join forces with Bill Shore and Gary Mulhair,
the founder and director of Community
Wealth Ventures respectively, to explore the feasibility
of establishing a social venture fund to make capital available
to help established nonprofit organizations grow in
scale and effectiveness. The Morino Institute and Community
Wealth Ventures then join forces with the Community
Foundation for the National Capital Region and its president,
Terri Freeman. These three groups make up the formation
team that is soon charged with defining and creating the
social venture fund.
May 1999: Mario Morino and the Morino
Institute decide to create and incubate a social venture
fund, provisionally called Youth Social Ventures (YSV).
November 1999: The Morino Institute holds
key planning meetings to explore strategies for YSV. Raul
Fernandez and Mark Warner join Mario Morino in making major
financial commitments to the initiative. The three initial
funders begin sharing their vision for the fledgling social
venture fund with other potential investors.
May 2000: The Morino Institute holds key
YSV planning meetings with several new investors and advisors.
Fundraising efforts for YSV break initial goals by garnering
more than $20 million in commitments. YSV is formally established
as its own nonprofit entity and incorporated as a support
organization to the Community Foundation for the National
Capital Region.
June 2000: YSV appoints an initial board
of directors: Jack Davies, Raul Fernandez, Terri Freeman,
Mario Morino, Bill Shore, and Mark Warner.
July 2000: Youth Social Ventures officially
changes its name to Venture Philanthropy Partners (VPP).
May 2001: VPP expands its board to 18
directors, encompassing leaders from the nonprofit, philanthropic,
and business sectors. VPP closes its first fund, the Children’s
Learning Fund for the National Capital Region, with in excess
of $30M in commitments.
March 2001: Bob Templin and his team from
the Morino Institute complete a comprehensive “landscaping”
effort and recommend more than 200 organizations serving
children for consideration by VPP’s investment team.
April 2001: VPP completes its initial
staffing.
July 2001: VPP initiates its investment partnership
with Heads
Up for business planning.
December 2001: VPP initiates investment partnerships
with the Child
and Family Network Centers and the Center
for Multicultural Human Services for business planning.
March 2002: VPP enters into a multi-year investment
with Heads
Up.
July 2002: VPP initiates its investment partnership
with the See
Forever Foundation for business planning.
September 2002: VPP enters into a multi-year
investment with the Center
for Multicultural Human Services.
October 2002: VPP initiates its investment partnership
with Asian
American LEAD, joining in a co-investing relationship with
the Edna McConnell
Clark Foundation.
November 2002: VPP initiates its investment
partnership with the Calvary
Bilingual Multicultural Learning Center for business planning.
March 2003: VPP enters into a multi-year investment
with the See
Forever Foundation and initiates a business planning partnership
with the Latin
American Youth Center.
September 2003: VPP
enters into a multi-year investment with the Child
and Family Network Centers.
February 2004: VPP enters into
a multi-year investment with Calvary
Bilingual Multicultural Learning Center.
March 2004: VPP initiates its investment partnership
with Boys
& Girls Clubs of Greater Washington for business planning.
April 2004: VPP initiates its investment
partnership with Mary's
Center for Maternal and Child Care for business planning.
September 2004: VPP investment partner Calvary
Bilingual Multicultural Learning Center changes its name to CentroNía.
December 2004: VPP initiates its investment partnership
with College Summit for business planning.
March 2005: VPP initiates a bridge investment agreement with Boys
& Girls Clubs of Greater Washington to support the recruitment of a new CEO.
April 2005: VPP initiates its multi-year investment partnership with Mary's Center for Maternal and Child Care.
May 2005: VPP initiates its investment partnership with Friendship Public Charter School for business planning.
Jun 2005: VPP initiates its investment partnership with The SEED Foundation for business planning.
Jan 2006: VPP initiates its multi-year investment partnership with the Latin American Youth Center.
May 2006: VPP, NewSchools Venture Fund, Announce Collaborative Investment of more than $4.5 Million in Friendship Public Charter School
September 2006: VPP initiates its multi-year investment partnership with The SEED Foundation
December 2006: VPP initiates its multi-year investment partnership with the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Washington
