Venture Philanthropy Partners (VPP) has entered into a multi-year investment partnership with the Calvary Bilingual Multicultural Learning Center, a child and family education and development center with an 18-year history of delivering a wide range of services in the District of Columbia. Through this investment partnership, VPP will provide significant funding and strategic assistance that will help Calvary achieve its aspiration of becoming the premier educational leader for bilingual, multicultural children in the Washington, DC metropolitan area, expanding its services to serve new families and communities, by 2009. VPP will provide funding up to $2,200,000 over a four-year period to Calvary, bringing VPP's financial commitment to Calvary to a total of $2,420,000, including the $220,000 provided for the development of their comprehensive strategic plan.

Calvary plans to expand from a single facility in Columbia Heights that currently serves 400 children and 250 adults, to managing child development programs, charter schools, and adult learning services in at least three additional sites, ultimately reaching 1,600 children and 800 adults over the next six years. This expansion plan includes serving new neighborhoods in the District and the region.

We are excited about this partnership because of Calvary’s demonstrated performance in helping improve the lives of the children and families it serves; the outstanding leadership provided by Executive Director BB Otero and her proven track record in managing rapid organizational growth; the strength of Calvary's management team and its passion to serve children and families; a solid board commitment; and strong community support. Accomplishing Calvary's goals for growth and expansion will give it national prominence as a leader in developing and delivering highly effective bilingual and multicultural education that promotes student success.

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For anyone who is serious about their philanthropy, one of the biggest challenges is to figure out how best to deploy their charitable dollars. In the beginning, people often are overwhelmed—should they start a family foundation? Should they endow a fund in perpetuity? Should they identify a few organizations and support those? Should they focus on “giving while living” and, if so, how should they best do this?

Recently, I participated in a discussion at the Council of Foundations meeting in New York on the pros and cons of “giving while living.” The lively conversation reinforced the highly personal nature of philanthropy and that there is no magic formula for effective giving.

For many people, setting up an endowed foundation allows them to support individuals and organizations working in areas that are important to the giver, and provide an opportunity for their children to continue their efforts in the future. For others, like me, it is important to engage in philanthropy today and see the fruit of the efforts in their own lifetimes. There aren’t clear rights or wrongs. What is important is that individuals find a philanthropic path that allows them to express their values and make a difference along the way.

During the panel, I shared a personal framework that guides my efforts. This framework is the result of a great deal of reflection on my part, of reaching out to others who had “been there, done that,” personal experience working with a variety of nonprofit and community-based organizations, and discussions with hundreds of people from foundation executives to scholars to community leaders to philanthropists.

This framework isn’t meant to suggest that I have found “the answer.” Rather it is offered as a sincere attempt to encourage others who are crafting their philanthropic strategies to think through some of the issues that I have labored over for more than 10 years.

Philanthropy should be part of a broader life plan and purpose.
Everyone has different reasons for engaging in philanthropy and in their goals for doing so. It is essential to understand what you really want to achieve and to ask yourself the following questions:

• Is there a strong passion or cause in your life that you want to act upon?


• Do you want to nurture in your children a desire to be civic participants and leaders?


• Do you want to leave a legacy and, if so, what kind of legacy and for what purpose?


• Is this going to be a casual or serious effort? This is perhaps one of the hardest questions to ask, but it is important to be brutally honest in the answer.


• Do you want to be directly and personally involved, participate but be less involved, or delegate the responsibility for carrying out your objectives to someone else?


• What kind of impact do you want to have?

Until you are able to answer these fundamental questions honestly, it’s very hard to make any decisions about the direction your philanthropy should take.

Establish the level of financial commitment at the outset.
It is very important to be clear about how much money you want to devote to philanthropic initiatives. Understand the kind of financial commitment you envision making to your philanthropy and over what period of time. Whatever the number, make it significant if you hope to have impact.

Take time to observe and learn before setting your plans in motion.
The philanthropic terrain and processes are not what one might assume. Take the time to understand the landscape, the issues facing the people, and communities you want to help. Have patience with your own learning and with the organizations you want to support. Before we made our first grant, we took a year and talked to hundreds of people to understand where our efforts might make a difference. Most people are not going to spend that kind of time, but it is worth investing the effort to talk to people who are expert in the issues and causes in which you have an interest.

Stay true to your personal framework.
It is vital to remain true to your intent and personal values. Along the way it will be tempting to change course. Having a clear framework for your philanthropy is vital because it is too easy to lose focus and dilute your efforts. I’ve held steady to my overall goals and the approach we defined for philanthropic involvement, whether through my personal philanthropy or through the philanthropic organizations I co-founded. Certainly the way we go about achieving those goals has evolved as we’ve learned and deepened our own understanding of the issues. However, there has always been an underlying vision that drives our efforts and we continue to evaluate our efforts against that framework.

No matter what course one chooses, the important thing is to gain a sense of what you want to accomplish with your philanthropy and become engaged with those you wish to support. One of the gifts in my work has been the chance to meet, learn from, and serve some remarkable leaders. I am impressed every day by the passion, energy, and commitment of the people and organizations serving youth and families that we have the privilege to get to know and with whom we work at VPP. If we can take steps that give these visionaries the opportunities to grow and succeed with what they believe is possible, then positive, meaningful change for children and families will be a reality. And in my view, this is what philanthropy is all about—using our talents and financial resources effectively to help others have an impact in a significant and lasting way.

--Mario Morino

See Forever Lauded in The New York Times Op-Ed

David Shipler of The New York Times mentioned VPP investment partner the See Forever Foundation's Maya Angelou Public Charter School as an example of an intensive, holistic approach that can alter the ecology of poverty in his February 21, 2004, op-ed, “Total Poverty Awareness.” The article advocates for "a sweeping national program to create what could be called gateways. At private and public institutions that are frequented every day—clinics, schools, food banks, housing projects, police precincts and the like—a person should be able to find easy referrals to child-rearing instruction, drug treatment and other assistance.”
This article is available for a fee through The New York Times archives.

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Will Dunbar might remind you of that favorite uncle from your youth. He has the relaxed manner and easy smile of the southern gentleman that he is, a product of public schools in Richmond, VA, and Charlotte, NC. Beneath that calm is a very focused man who has managed to combine the service orientation of his college years with a very successful career in high-stakes investing. William Dunbar, a VPP investor and board member, is the cofounder and managing director of Core Capital Partners, a $170 million private equity fund based in Washington, DC, which invests in early- and mid-stage companies with a focus on enterprise software development and communications technology.

For many years, Will has also invested considerable time and energy in a transitional housing organization in Northern Virginia and in the local Boys & Girls Clubs. He says the first seeds of his service orientation were probably planted at Davidson College in North Carolina, where students were encouraged to reach out to others. After college Will began working in technology at a commercial bank that eventually became Bank of America. There, he gained the work experience he needed to get into business school.

He was accepted into Harvard Business School. While there, a friend introduced him to the venture capital industry, which he found intriguing. “All of my colleagues wanted to go to McKinsey or Goldman Sachs. I thought venture capital was more appealing—it was a good blend of strategy and finance, but, unlike consulting or investment banking, you have a long-term interest in the company that goes well beyond the investment transaction,” he said. His VC career began at Venture America in 1986 where he was involved in the initial investments in the Discovery Channel and Digene. Less than two years later, local entrepreneur and venture capitalist Jonathan Ledecky recruited Will to replace him at Allied Capital Corporation, an aggressive private equity firm with deep pockets and two experienced partners. Will led several investment activities at Allied and was president of one of its funds. There he found a mentor in George Williams, the company’s founder and one of the early pioneers in the world of venture capital.

In 1996, Will left Allied to form an angel investment company, Pebble Hill Capital. Through that company Will made what he describes as “easily the most intriguing” investment of his career in webMethods. The story of webMethods (founded by VPP investors Phillip Merrick and Caren Dewitt) is legend. It remains one of the most successful IPOs in history, its stock price skyrocketing from $32 per share to nearly $213 per share in a single day. The company grew from a $10 million new technology start-up to a $10 billion company in less than three years. “In some ways, webMethods personified the bubble,” says Will. “What’s unusual is that the company still has the same core management team it started with, led by Phillip Merrick, which shows that, occasionally, the creative people who start an enterprise also have the skills necessary to take it to scale.”

Will says he can’t imagine himself in any line of work other than starting and running businesses. So, it was quite natural for him and colleague Jonathan Silver to start a new company, Core Capital Partners, in 1999.

Over the years, Will also kept an eye on Mario Morino’s career in the software industry. When Mario started VPP, Will said he liked the idea of bringing the same value-add to nonprofits that VC firms bring to for-profit companies. There are many parallels between the needs of early- stage for-profit companies and nonprofit organizations, Will believes. Both need more than money. They need sustainable sources of funding and assistance developing their management teams and their boards. Additionally, an experienced third party, like Core Capital in the commercial world and VPP in the nonprofit arena, can bring an analytic rigor and perspective to the organization that an entrepreneur or an executive director might not have. He says that it has been rewarding to see how VPP has had an impact on its investment partners. The experience on the VPP board has also expanded Will’s world view. “It’s been broadening and eye-opening to hear the perspectives of the foundation and nonprofit people on the board.”

“Giving back is important,” Will says, explaining his willingness to give so much time and energy to philanthropy and community service. He spent 10 years on the board of Community Lodgings, a transitional housing program that serves the homeless in Alexandria, VA. There Will helped renovate and secure financing for low-income housing. He also taught some of the English and computer classes that the organization offered to clients. And more than 15 years ago, when Will was looking for a way to help children in the region, he joined the board of the Alexandria Boys & Girls Club. He later went on the organization’s parent board, Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Washington, which he was drawn to because its size enables it to reach thousands of children in the region. He is an active member of the program committee that sets standards for the organization’s 26 clubs.

Today Will Dunbar’s plate is plenty full. He and his wife Denise, who ran Virginia’s welfare reform program in the 1990s, have three young children. And Will is looking to create the right opportunity for other fathers like himself to get their children involved in giving back at an early age.

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Carol was honored for her more than 20 years of management experience in the private and public sectors, as well as her history of leadership in the nonprofit community and local government of Washington, DC. As the Rally Day program states, “In the years that Carol Thompson Cole worked for the District of Columbia, it seemed that whenever government agencies were in a bind, they turned to her.”

Carol, a member of the class of 1973, was also asked to give the address at the convocation. She spoke about her experience of coming to Smith from a public high school in Washington, DC, questioning whether Smith was the right place for her. In the end, she discovered that Smith was indeed the right fit, as it prepared her for a life in public service.

Smith’s Rally Day tradition began in February 1876 as a celebration of George Washington's birthday. Over the years, the Rally Day traditions have evolved: in 1944, seniors began wearing their graduation caps and gowns to the convocation. Today, this is still the first time that they wear their gowns publicly, but, over the years, caps have been replaced with hats of their own choosing (and sometimes making) in keeping with the spirited tone of the event. This year’s Rally Day theme, “The Right Fit,” extended the irreverence of the hat tradition into a metaphor about how there’s something at Smith for everyone, a message Carol reinforced in her remarks by encouraging students to find their own niche.

Carol said, “Being honored with a Smith Medal is an experience that I will never forget, and I was thrilled that my parents and husband were able to join me for the Rally Day convocation. As I said in my remarks to the students, if it weren’t for the encouragement and support of my parents, I might not have been able to receive the Smith education that would lay the groundwork for my career in public service.” Carol also speaks about how the support of her husband (and his patience in their commuter lifestyle) has been a critical factor in her continued connection with her alma mater, as she has served as a member of Smith’s Board of Trustees and as an informal mentor to numerous Smith students and alumnae throughout the years. Congratulations to Carol on this well-deserved recognition.

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