Empower Charleston utilizes an approach known as Venture Philanthropy. Our goal is to create measurable positive change in the community. The “returns” we seek may include increased access to services, greater efficiencies in delivering services, or improved quality of life. Investments come in two ways: monetary grants, or financial capital, and knowledge and expertise sharing, or intellectual capital.
Our Investment Committee employs a formal investment process that evaluates competitive applications, then awards larger two-year grants to selected organizations.
Empower Charleston Partners also contribute intellectual capital by imparting their experience and knowledge as consultants, facilitators, and advisors to our nonprofit investees.
Our community partners, or investees, are dynamic nonprofits working to tackle some of Charleston’s most pressing issues. These investees join with Empower Charleston to gain strategic and operational support that builds capacity and scale.
Empower Charleston has awarded more than one million dollars in grants to local nonprofits since 2010. Harder to measure, but even more important, is the value of the advice and guidance we have given to scores of nonprofits.
The capabilities of an organization’s Executive Director and senior staff are critical to our expectation of future success. The commitment and resources of the Board of Directors is also a determining factor.
The historical impact a nonprofit has on its target population is only a starting point. More valuable is a judgment of its potential impact after financial and intellectual investment.
Empower Charleston takes a longer–range perspective than many funders. We look for results that may be deeper and occur over time. Helping nonprofits measure their organizational sustainability, economic impact on clients, and sustained performance can be more revealing than traditional metrics.