HOW DOES EC HELP RECIPIENTS?

An investment of enterprise capital lets a nonprofit’s leaders spend more time pursuing its mission and less on meeting funder requirements. Philanthropic funding often forces nonprofits to compromise their missions, because the time and resources spent managing funder demands is time taken from the direct pursuit of an organization’s impact goals. Many nonprofits scramble to raise capital from multiple sources, and meeting all their different requirements fragments effort distracts from focus, and requires management systems for which philanthropy rarely pays.

Enterprise capital represents a long-term, unrestricted investment in stability and growth. It provides the foundation for program innovation and helps attract additional equity and debt investments—and it does both without imposing the demands on staff capacity that come with highly fragmented funding. Viewed this way, EC actually aligns better with the priorities of high-impact nonprofit leaders than business as usual. When an organization spends less time managing the intricacies of fundraising and reporting requirements, talented practitioners have more time to think strategically about and execute their work.