Invest for Children

Edificio Zurich
Via Augusta
200, 1ª pl.
08021 Barcelona
www.investforchildren.org
Year founded: 1999

Invest for Children (i4c) is an international non-profit organisation with a mission to help abled children and young adults with Down’s syndrome achieve a better quality of life. Invest for Children was founded by Investindustrial, the private equity arm of the BI-Invest Group, to serve as a channel for its corporate giving. Investindustrial provides the support of its employees in planning and implementing charitable projects, and in fundraising activities. Investindustrial devised the idea of giving 1% of what it made to charity – from the capital gain on the sponsor’s commitment to funds, team’s commitment to funds, carried interest earned on funds, profits of the management company, and founder partners’ salaries. i4c is registered as a public foundation in the UK and Spain, with presence in London, Barcelona, and Milan.

i4c wants a society that integrates diversity, and supports projects that share this common objective. 75% of children diagnosed with Down’s syndrome manage to attend normal educational programmes, and most companies in the EU are obliged or encouraged to contract disabled individuals. Yet, two out of every three disabled people are not actively employed.

Applied venture philanthropy
i4c takes, as it is known in the venture capital world, a fund-of-funds approach. It has identified five main areas of focus for supporting the integration of people with Down’s syndrome: education; medical integration; labour integration; social; and sports integration. In each of these five areas, it has identified one vehicle, or foundation that is already excelling in its delivery of services. i4c’s core staff of five people works together to identify and screen candidates. Eligible organisations must have audited financial statements for at least five years, be based in Spain or Italy, and have a mission related to the integration of people with mental disabilities. To date, the selection of portfolio organisations has not been systematic, but this is something that will change in the future. Selected organisations are given support for three years. Regardless of the organisation’s progress, there is no option for additional follow-on funding.

During the three-year period, i4c provides funding and non-financial services with the view of teaching each organisation how to be self-sufficient by the end of the three-year period. There is a strong focus on helping the social entrepreneur with fundraising skills, public relations, and communications. i4c’s belief is that the organisation’s image is very important to fundraising, and foundation leaders need to be excellent communicators. i4c absorbs all of the costs for the portfolio organisation’s website (re)design and maintenance as part of its support package for the first year, and has contracts with a public relations firm and web agency in Spain to provide these services. To date, Invest for Children has invested/guaranteed €1.5 million in its projects. The size of investment ranges from €1,000 to 250,000. Additionally, i4c connects foundations and businesses to promote social integration.

I4c’s current portfolio projects include:
Pension Plans – In 2007, i4c offered five pension plans for life to the best five employees with Down’s syndrome who work for independent companies. The aim is to help the integration of these employees and to increase their motivation and self-esteem. i4c chose Foundation Projecte Aura to implement this project because Projecte Aura, which uses the Supported Employment methodology, provides a personalised service to over 100 people with Down’s syndrome to help their integration into the labour market.

Special Olympics - Special Olympics is an international non-profit organisation dedicated to empowering individuals with mental disabilities to become physically fit, productive, and respected members of society through sports training and competition. Special Olympics offers children and adults with intellectual disabilities year-round training and competition in 30 Olympic-type summer and winter sports. i4c provided economic and PR support to help Special Olympics Spain send 86 athletes to the 2007 Special Olympics Games that were held in Shanghai, in October.

Project DVD ‘I can’ - i4c has produced this DVD to demonstrate that employment integration is a successful option. The DVD contains images of, and interviews with, people with Down’s syndrome at work, showing the benefits of the integration. Again, the implementing partner is Foundation Projecte Aura. i4c has covered all the production and distribution costs of the DVD.

Assessing impact
I4C does not have one common way of measuring impact across the portfolio, such as an SROI or balanced scorecard. Instead, metrics for tracking impact and progress are developed for each of the portfolio organisations, based on the objectives and goals of each project. These metrics are not used to determine follow-on investment decisions. i4c commits to supporting an organisation for only a three-year, maximum period.

Engaged partnership: Projecte Aura
With its fund-of-funds approach, i4c remains committed to its few, chosen organisations, including Projecte Aura. Aura is an historic foundation that provides support for people with disabilities, specifically helping them to find employment, which is a key step in developing self-confidence. i4c has helped Aura in developing strategies to generate recurrent revenues, by supporting the production of 10,000 DVDs, which could be used by Aura in their communications and fundraising strategies to show images of their work and interviews with people directly impacted by their programme.