SEPTEMBER 2019 UPDATE

Our first venture philanthropy fund (2014 to 2019) has supported projects relating to disabilities, female entrepreneurship, women and girls, meditation and yoga, and ageing well and dying well.

We are now in the process of planning our second fund which we hope to commence during 2020.

Currently we are not formally taking applications, but we do read all the messages that we receive, so if there’s something you want to share, please feel free to email us at: contact@vasudhara.org

If you’re interested to read about the approach we took to Fund I, please check out the overview below. Also check out some case studies here, as well as a list of the projects we supported here.

VASUDHARA FUND I (2014-2019)

APPROACH

We provide funding and strategic support to early-stage social impact projects. 

Our funding supports social entrepreneurs in a number of ways, but common themes are achieving proof of concept and reaching financial sustainability. 

We are drawn to projects where we are the unique funders, and will engage with ideas that are courageous, creative, and even controversial. 

Our key areas of interests include: 

  • Supporting people with disabilities

  • Supporting female entrepreneurs

  • Organisations which support women and girls

  • Meditation and yoga in underprivileged communities

  • Ageing well and dying well

  • Social impact projects that make innovative use of technology to achieve scale

We invest in non-profits, profit-for-purpose and social enterprises.

QUALITIES OF FOUNDERS

Key qualities/capaiblities we look for in founders are:

  • A passion and vision to have an impact

  • The resourcefulness to make things happen in a start-up environment

  • Solid planning and operational skills

  • Openness to collaboration

We often work with:

  • People with deep experience of one of our areas of interest

  • People with a strong team of supporters and advisors

QUALITIES OF PROJECTS

Key qualities we look for in projects are:

  • Potential for demonstrable and measurable social impact

  • Potential to scale beyond start-up

  • Potential to reach financial sustainability within the medium-term

  • Innovative

Because our focus is on catalytic funding to make things happen that wouldn't happen otherwise, we tend not to invest in projects which are already well funded.

WHAT WE CAN PROVIDE

The initial funding we provide typically ranges from $10-50K for a six month project, with the potential for follow on funding.

Funding can be in the form of equity, debt or a grant, depending on the nature of the project.

We also provide strategic support and access to professional networks through the ongoing involvement of our team members in projects as they evolve.  

In addition to making donations to organisations with DGR, we are also able to fund organisations without DGR but which have a charitable purpose, through our Private Charitable Trust, the Vasudhara Angel Fund.

THE PROCESS

The investment review process usually takes one to two months.

The first step is for the potential project partner to provide some information about the planned project. If the project meets our investment criteria, we would meet face to face to explore the project's potential. 

If we both decide that we'd like to take the project to the next stage, then we would collaboratively develop an investment proposal and funding agreement to present to our Investment Committee.

The project would commence with the funding being released gradually over time.

Typically the partner will provide monthly updates, and we will catch up from time to time to reflect on the project's high level progress and direction. At the end of the project, we work with our partners to evaluate the impact of the project and identify learnings to take forward.