NESsT UK
A selection of press coverage by and about NESsT:
Alternative Latin Investor
Sustainability Not Charity
“NESsT considers itself to be the philanthropic equivalent of a venture capital or private equity firm, but focused on generating ‘social return on investment’ rather than just financial return.” By Tiffany Joy Swenson, Issue 8 (2011), page 22.
Real Deals
Venture Philanthropy: An interview with NESsT Co-Founder Lee Davis “The private equity community likes the idea of doing their philanthropy in a way that mirrors their investment approach,” Lee Davis, Co-Founder of NESsT in Real Deals Europe (London: December 2009), page 32.
Business at Oxford
“NESsT: Incubating Social Enterprise,” (Oxford University, Said Business School, Issue 5; Summer 2004). “NESsT is one of the most energetic and innovative organisations operating in the field known as ‘venture philanthropy’, whereby philanthropists ‘invest’ in non-profits almost as if they were start-up enterprises.”
Dow Jones Newswire
Central Europe’s Non-Profits Cope With Funding Vacuum (February 2003)
“NESsT insists that it’s not about charity. It’s into business plans, management skills, long-term strategy, business ethics and efficiency. It’s into running a tight ship. ‘The idea is to make the business side of an organization profitable, allowing it to fund its social agenda.’”
Revista PODER
The Best of Both Worlds: The concept of venture philanthropy is proving to be one of the most efficient means of financing non-profit organizations. By David Yanovich, Revista PODER (Miami: October 2002), pages 46-48.
Financial Times
LatAm: Making cents out of social enterprises (June 2011)
“NESsT’s job is to help leverage capitalist skills, money and financing instruments for social entrepreneurs to build commercially viable operations to try to break the cycle where doing good work is all too often dependent on short-term donations.”
Alliance Magazine: For philanthropy and social investment worldwide
“Venture philanthropy – the future of philanthropy or misguided hubris?,” Lee Davis & Nicole Etchart, guest editors of special feature on venture philanthropy, Vol. 7, No. 2 (London: June 2002), pages 21-40.
El Mercurio
Finalists in the Social Entreprenuer of the Year Competion: The New Heroes Nicole Etchart, NESsT Co-Founder & CEO in El Mercurio, Revista El Sabado (Santiago: October 1 2005), pages 28-32. “Muchos donantes están cansados de financiar proyectos. Con este modelo se apoya a organizaciones sociales sin experiencia y nuestro rol es minimizar el riesgo, capacitarlas, ver su plan de negocios y también las expectativas que tienen.”
The Wall Street Journal
Venture Philanthropy Brings ‘Social Returns’
“Venture philanthropy works very much like for-profit venture investing: Investors scrutinize the business plans of the nonprofit groups they’re considering funding; after they’ve made an organization part of their
portfolio, they continue to follow it, helping it raise further funding and fine tune revenue-generating projects.” (Paris: The Wall Street Journal, European Edition, December 28, 2001).
Revista Capital
Con ciencia social (August 2009)
“Se trata de un fondo de inversión particular. los aportantes en ningún caso están detrás de negocios con jugosos dividendos. Al contrario, su objetivo es el retorno social. Así es como NESsT de a poco ha ido sumando adeptos. entre ellos. Connotados inversionistas.”
Stanford Social Innovation Review
Carving out a Niche: A Czech social enterprise uses woodworking to help drug addicts By Will Tizard, in “What Works,” Summer 2006 (pp. 64-65). “Czech nonprofit and NESsT portfolio member P-Centrum uses a woodworking shop to help recovering drug addicts gain job skills and earn income. The Stanford Social Innovation Review explores the history and accomplishments of their social enteprise.”
Micro-Enterprise Americas
“Venture Philanthropy: Panacea or Snake Oil?,” Lee Davis & Nicole Etchart, Special section on Social Investment in Latin America (Washington, DC: Inter-American Development Bank, 2002), pages 59-61.
LatinFinance Magazine
“Going Better on Good Causes,”Why can’t non-profits also capture part of the market, to build assets and become players for social ends?,” Nicole Etchart, NESsT Co-Founder & CEO, No. 160, IMF Special Issue (September 2004), pages 57-59.
LatinTrade
“Giving for Beginners,” Nicole Etchart, NESsT Co-Founder & CEO, in “Giving for Beginners” by Greg Browne in Latin Trade Magazine (Miami: January 2005). “The next step is what Etchart calls ‘engaged philanthropy,’ focused not on absorbing short-term needs . . . but on helping organizations create effective, permanent change…The way philanthropy has been framed, unfortunately, relies on quick results.’”