Impact Venture Capitalists are not typical donors. December 19th, 2016: The first ImpactClub® launched in Northern, VA. In just 28 days, 112 Impact Venture Capitalists joined as founding members. Each committed a $100 donation. Three charities presented. The majority vote winner: Received a check for $11,200.
To further understand, how ImpactClub and the concept of Impact Venture Capitalism is going to change the world, one local community at a time. Watch the video above. Then join me, for a tour down the rabbit hole.
We believe charitable organizations, like business owners, have a responsibility to their donors to deliver ROI: Return on Impact. That means, donated money, it shouldn’t just be spent. It should be multiplied. You do not Impact communities, long term, by giving away money. You do not help charities, their founders or representatives, long term, by giving away money. You do not help affected families, whose loved ones are fighting terrible diseases, to battle that disease, long term, by giving away money.
That is the misconception.
Giving away money is not the answer. The answer is to inspire charities, their founders, representatives, etc., and the parents, children, siblings, of affected family members, to become effective fundraising machines in their own right - so ultimately, they don't need your money.
That means we must accept - A charity is a business. Their product, their service is Impact. And to deliver that Impact, they must sell the value of that Impact to people willing to pay for it, support it, and champion it, to recruit further support.
The Impact Venture Capitalist doesn't vote with a bleeding heart. We vote based on presented merit. Our concept: "Impact Venture Capitalism" is rooted in venture capitalism, because the startup founder who tells the best story, demonstrates the best return, etc., is the startup founder that receives the funding. There are many great founders that have great intentions, and, could positively impact their customers, but that alone is not enough to warrant an investment.
This explains why startup founders, weeks in advance of meeting with a venture capital firm, prepare their pitch deck. The pitch deck is the "story" of how their company will use the money they seek to grow the business, expand, or disrupt the market. If that founder makes a poor case for his company; tells a poor story, doesn't inspire investors, etc. then he doesn't get the funding.
Become The Best Storyteller!
Knowing the importance of storytelling is not unique to Saca either. Don Valentine, founder of the famed firm Sequoia Capital, has said, "The art of storytelling is incredibly important. Learning to tell a story is critically important, because that's how the money works. The money flows as a function of the story."
ImpactClub® brings this belief to Impact Venture Capitalism. To invest in charities. ImpactClub is not a charitable organization. ImpactClub, metaphorically speaking, is a venture capital firm. Except, instead of investing in companies for the purpose of profit. We invest in local charities for the purpose of demonstrate-able Impact on our communities.
We believe high-stakes competition is the best way to incentivize charitable founders to get really good, really fast, at crafting, telling, and presenting their story. This “Story Engine” is what causes more money to flow to that charity in the future. Following in the XPRIZE’s footsteps, ImpactClub® employs a winner takes all model.
Peter Demandis, an Elon Musk-type entrepreneur, and founder of XPRIZE - put this on his website: “We believe in the power of competition. That it’s part of our DNA. Of humanity itself. That tapping into that indomitable spirit of competition brings about breakthroughs and solutions that once seemed unimaginable. Impossible.We believe that you get what you incentivize. And that without a target, you will miss it every time. Rather than throw money at a problem, we incentivize the solution and challenge the world to solve it.”
The solution, in the world of fundraising, is to create a powerful “Story Engine.” ImpactClub, therefore, is a highly leveraged, incentivized competition that pushes charitable founders to present the best story. It’s not enough to just “do good things.” To earn the investment of ImpactClub, that charity, their founder or representative, must also be able enunciate it through a powerful story. And the high stakes format, "Winner Takes All," is the massive incentive for the 3 selected charities to get really good, really fast, at crafting and telling that story. Which requires extreme commitment. Not to mention, a deep understanding about the real industry that they are in.Hint: It's not the charity business. It's the storytelling business.
We believe small donations are the role of the traditional donor. Not the Impact Venture Capitalist. ImpactClub® makes the greatest Impact, by coming together to write the biggest checks. We understand the importance of our role. We fill the gap in the charitable market that the traditional donor can’t fill.
Beyond the obvious size of our checks, the purpose of ImpactClub is to build a portfolio of charitable “Story Engines.”
Because a charity without an effective story, like a business without an effective story, is in constant need of more money and more funding. Charities with a story, on the other hand, like a business with a powerful story, has created for itself a “Story Engine.” Which in turn, causes more and more money to flow to it to be self-sustaining, to fund its own growth and future Impact initiatives.
This is how, long term, you Impact communities.
We believe ego and pride are the enemies of Impact. Impact Venture Capitalists do not seek individual accolades, nor do we see value in operating alone. ImpactClub®, we make the greatest Impact, because of our ability to organize. We even compete against other ImpactClubs, in a the spirit of cooperation, to incentivize and motivate each ImpactClub to pursue its greatest impact.
In a phrase, ImpactClub is Home for people who want to make a difference. Like all athletes, Impact Venture Capitalists perform their best when they are inspired, challenged, and pushed by competition.
ImpactClub League: Comes complete with friendly bragging rights, Impact stats, national leaderboards, awards, and extravagant prizes given to those Impact Venture Capitalists who continually strive to multiply the Impact of their team. In short, we fight together. We take no pride in acting alone.
When you act as an individual, we believe it’s extremely difficult to perpetually make a larger, more significant Impact. Traditional donors give to charities what they can afford to give, after their own personal expenses. And to make a larger donation, they must personally give more, which means they must make more. For obvious reasons, traditional donors (with the exception of the really rich) rarely donate enough to make a massive Impact in the local community.
Impact Venture Capitalists, on the other hand, create a Movement of Impact, by simply “growing & strengthening the Chain of Inspiration” one person, one action at a time. Take those 112 founding members. If each person grows and strengthens “the chain of inspiration” by just one new member. Those 112 founding members, become 224 members. And instead of writing a check for $11,200, ImpactClub® now donates a check for $22,400. Then it happens again. Each member inspires one other person, to join in the fight to Impact local communities.
Now there are 448 ImpactClub members.
Then it happens again.
Now there are 896 ImpactClub members. And in less than a year, ImpactClub went from donating an $11,200 check (just $100 from each 112 founding members), to donating a check for $89,600 every quarter. The best part? No member ever donates more than their same $100, and yet every Impact Venture Capitalist, has the same exponential Impact on the invested in charities and local community.
Through ImpactClub®, as Impact Venture Capitalists, we invest heavily in local charities that demonstrate a powerful “Story Engine,” and, have proven their willingness to fight for their cause, by competing in and winning a high-stakes competition. As a result, ImpactClub, through Impact Venture Capitalism, has dramatically multiplied the Impact that a single person can have on charities in their local community.
Because of those 6 reasons explained, assuming the avg. traditional donor gives $100 per quarter, here’s a look at the “Impact comparison” of their donation via traditional means vs. donating through ImpactClub:
The benefit of ImpactClub® extends beyond the large monetary donations. The money portion is just the instant gratification and high-stakes incentive (modeled after the XPRIZE), to motivate local charities to get really good, really fast – to jump start their desire, to hone their craft as a storyteller. Like a fad diet, drop 10 pounds in a week. But results, purely inspired by instant gratification, they don’t last. Soon, that diet fails. The pounds come back. Likewise, that donated money is spent. Gone. And the need for funding again becomes urgent. Thus, for maximum Impact, the only true solution is for ImpactClub and charitable founders to play the long game. Which means, 1) Charities must be committed to building a strong “Story Engine.” But also, 2) They need the ability to continually water that “seed,” should they want to harvest it, time and time again.
That is why if ImpactClub just gave monetary donations, absent the more valuable benefits described below, it would be a flawed concept. Money only goes so far. But a community of support, and access to knowledge, is an ever-renewing resource. This is why venture capital firms are so supportive of their startup founders, because the support is infinitely more valuable than the money component:
A Movement of Impact doesn’t happen by accident, it happens because of you. And someone else like you, who came before you. And someone like you, who will come after you. ImpactClub®, in each local community, grows stronger every day because Impact Venture Capitalists want to make a difference. It’s in their DNA. They want to inspire and be inspired. They want to belong to something bigger than themselves. Most important? Doing for others is where we believe deep-rooted fulfillment comes from.
FIND A CLUB