A philanthropic investment fund dedicated to supporting LGBT social enterprises

LGBT organizations worldwide are under-resourced, constantly struggling to identify sufficient financial resources to sustain or expand their activities. Current efforts to expand this pool of resources for LGBT organizations has almost exclusively focused on encouraging corporations, foundations and individuals to provide additional philanthropic support. While important, philanthropy alone will never be sufficient to meet the growing financial needs of LGBT organizations to address the challenges of the day. LGBT organizations, and the donors who support them, need to find ways to directly tap into the far greater pool of resources: the market.

In 2009, NESsT released End of the Rainbow: Increasing the Sustainability of LGBT Organizations through Social Enterprise. End of the Rainbow contains detailed profiles and examples of hundreds of entrepreneurial LGBT organizations that are operating social enterprises. These examples illustrate that, when done well, social enterprise can generate much-needed resources to improve the financial stability of LGBT organizations. But perhaps even more importantly, social enterprise can also further the social impact of LGBT organizations by creating economic opportunities and employment for marginalized LGBT individuals; by providing safe spaces for LGBT individuals to organize, meet and socialize; and by increasing interaction between LGBT organizations, the general public and the business community. But while End of the Rainbow clearly shows opportunities, it also unearths challenges and risks. LGBT organizations need access to capital and to business development services to better plan for and manage social enterprises.

Galeforce Capital: investing in LGBT social enterprises

In 2010, NESsT piloted and launched Galeforce Capital, a philanthropic investment fund dedicated to providing financial and mentoring support to LGBT organizations to plan for, launch or expand social enterprises. Galeforce Capital will be managed by NESsT, a pioneer in social enterprise development and home of the NESsT Venture Fund, the first emerging market social enterprise development fund. Since 2001, NESsT has supported the development of over 2,600 social enterprises across Central & Eastern Europe and Latin America. NESsT will adapt the NESsT Venture Fund tools and methodology to target the specific needs of LGBT social enterprises through Galeforce Capital.

Galeforce Capital will emphasize supporting LGBT social enterprises that:

• are related to the social mission of LGBT organizations;
• are designed to have a significant social impact;
• demonstrate potential to generate untied funds;
• raise awareness of LGBT organizations and issues;
• build links between LGBT organizations and LGBT business leaders.

Through Galeforce Capital, NESsT is particularly interested in supporting the following types of LGBT social enterprises (though not exclusively):

• enterprises that create economic opportunity, income generating opportunities, job training and/or permanent professional employment for low income, unemployed or otherwise marginalized LGBT individuals;
• real estate opportunities that create permanent, safe places for LGBT individuals to live, meet, organize or socialize;
• LGBT tourism enterprises.

Galeforce Capital will support LGBT social enterprises at both the early and later stages:

• social enterprise feasibility: LGBT organizations seeking assistance to test the feasibility of new social enterprise ideas;
• social enterprise start up: LGBT organizations with existing (or partial) business plans but with little or no experience or skills in social enterprise management;
• social enterprise expansion/optimization: LGBT organizations with existing social enterprises that are either not operating at optimal levels and require assistance and/or those needing capital to improve performance to expand.

Galeforce Capital will take a venture capital approach to its investing, being highly engaged with our portfolio of social enterprises, providing business development support, networking and co-investing opportunities.