How can social impact ventures and non-profits attract donors and impact investors?

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Hi,

First of all, I apologize if I mispronounced your name. I'm guessing. So if you do respond to this, tell me phonetically how to pronounce it so we get it right in the future.

Anyway, if you're trying to attract donors or impact investors to what you're working on, my biggest advice is you've got to prove that it can eventually be self-sustaining, or close to self-sustaining. Impact investors especially expect that if they give you money, you're going to be able to give it back to them times 100. And so you need to demonstrate that what you're doing has a very, very positive return on investment component.

If it's someone who is a purely impact investor, or even a donor, what I've found is that they really want to see that this is not a bottomless pit. They don't want to see that the only way this survives is by pouring money into it. They're looking for proof that what you're doing is lasting and helpful.

And the strongest proof you can give is that people are willing to pay for it, or that you're willing to figure out some economic model where this can eventually have a positive margin. One of the non-profits that I've worked with for a long time has a motto, basically: "No margin, no mission." Which means you've got to figure out a way that it can eventually be self-sustaining, and that the donor money or the impact investor money is purely going to help it along.

It doesn't mean, "We give you money and you do something which you just give away for free to people." Anyone can give things away for free. Can you do something that people really want?

So the strongest way you're ever going to attract donors or impact investors is to prove you have something real. And the best way to do that is to start doing it, and show that you can actually generate revenue from it.

Anyway, good luck. Let me know if you have further questions.