Day on the Job - Good Capital

How do social ventures get their funding and how can private equity be used to improve the world? These are just some of the issues that were addressed at the Haas sponsored DOJ this past Friday morning. Mitch Jones, Tanya Marston and Greg Murphy joined UC Berkeley and USF students at Good Capital in San Francisco’s Mission District. Good Capital creates a bridge between traditional philanthropy and traditional investment vehicles like venture capital and provides social ventures and nonprofits with critical funding. Structured like a private equity fund, Good Capital raises capital that is invested in organizations such as those working to improve healthcare, education, and economic development. Good Capital also provides the business support that many of these social ventures need as they grow and expand their market driven strategies for improving the world.

Going beyond the traditional approaches to charity and philanthropy, Good Capital works with investors who are interested in putting their money into entrepreneurial organizations that are creating social change. The investors don’t anticipate getting a large financial return on their investments, but they do expect a blend of both social and financial returns. Investors that come to Good Capital must invest a minimum of $250,000. These resources go into the Social Enterprise Expansion Fund, LP and are then invested in the 12 portfolio companies Good Capital manages. This venture capital fund fills the gap in funding these organizations need to scale up and build their capacity.

After learning about Good Capital’s work from Wes Selke, Portfolio Officer; Deb Parsons, Vice President; and co-founder Timothy Freundlich, we worked on a case that had been sent to us before the DOJ. The Good Capital staff elicited student opinions on how to assess valuation of a real life company they are working with and the trade-offs of different ways of having the social venture support its nonprofit partners. It was a great opportunity to contribute thoughts and ideas on how to solve a practical problem and to understand how the concepts from Financial Accounting are critical to devising these solutions.

Good Capital is hiring paid interns over the summer and has a program in development called Good Fellows. For more information on the company, visit www.goodcap.net

Tanya Marston, GSM '09