As Miller Center winds down from an EPIC summer of travel visiting some of our top enterprise partners around the world, we are now gearing up for our flagship fall season at Santa Clara University. This October, we will welcome the 2024 In-Residence cohort to the SCU campus and participate in the SOCAP24 conference in San Francisco.
The 17 social enterprises invited to participate in this year’s Fall In-Residence represent some of the most inspiring leaders who are transforming lives and creating climate resiliency in a variety of communities across the globe. During Oct. 23-27, these entrepreneurs will participate in in-depth mock investor meetings, take part in workshops on presentation skills, marketing and branding, leadership development, and hear from fellow Miller Center entrepreneur peers about their respective fundraising journeys. The goal of all of this is to equip them with the skills to effectively tell their stories, helping them secure the right kinds of capital for their stage of development.
Following In-Residence, the cohort will be sponsored by Miller Center to attend SOCAP24 in San Francisco, where they will have more opportunities to showcase their work and apply what they have learned through direct engagement with the impact investing community.
The Top Enterprises for Venture Philanthropy
Each participant in this cohort, having reached a level of success and scale in their own right, is coming to In-Residence with compelling investment stories ranging from addressing traditionally underserved markets to providing novel services with the potential to disrupt the industries in which they operate.. And, what do all 17 of these enterprises have in common? They have previously completed a Miller Center accelerator program and have been carefully selected by our Enterprise Relations & Impact Investing teams following a thorough review of their business plans and financial documents. Miller Center can confidently say that these entrepreneurs have created successful business models worthy of philanthropic capital.
Putting Our Money Where Our Mouth Is
According to the World Economic Forum, there is a funding gap for social enterprises estimated at $1.1 trillion dollars. Most impact funds today continue to follow a typical venture capital (VC) model, which is fundamentally misaligned with the realities of impact-first startups like the social enterprises Miller Center supports. Since Miller Center is intentional about accelerating enterprises operating in emerging markets and led by underrepresented founders, the vast majority of our enterprise network consists of steady-growth social enterprises tackling complex problems in hard-to-reach markets. These enterprises inherently do not fit the typical startup mold where rapid growth, high financial returns, and clear exit opportunities define the traditional VC model. This is where philanthropic capital, or venture philanthropy becomes essential.
Miller Center Capital addresses this misalignment in the impact investing community. We are proud to say that in the last 15 months, Miller Center Capital has invested in 12 post accelerator graduates, including Be Girl and Vitalite who are a part of the 2024 In-Residence cohort. Miller Center Capital utilizes flexibly structured investment structures and every investment is bespoke to the needs of the enterprise. The goal is to not only offer investment that is aligned with the funding necessities of social enterprises but also to catalyze significant additional investment to businesses driving real and growing impact across the globe.
There is an enormous opportunity to unleash risk-tolerant, patient, and catalytic capital for long-term, sustainable impact and Miller Center Capital is taking an active part in designing and deploying capital funding that is actively shaping the future of impact investing.
In other words, we consider ourselves venture philanthropists who put our money where our mouth is!
Meet the 2024 In-Residence cohort
BeGirl and Vitalite are just two examples representative of the top enterprises selected to participate in this year’s In-Residence program. All of them have created models of success and are actively seeking philanthropic funding which will enable them to continue to innovate, scale, and lift entire populations out of poverty.
We are thrilled to welcome them in person this October to Santa Clara.
Read more about each enterprise below:
