International Venture Philanthropist Award

Since starting our work in 1997, NESsT has been at the forefront of efforts to bring greater international attention to the fields of nonprofit entrepreneurship and venture philanthropy, particularly in Central Europe and Latin America.

In 2001, in an effort to promote excellence in the field of venture philanthropy and to create international role models in the field, the NESsT Board of Directors established the International Venture Philanthropist Award (IVPA). This bi-annual Award recognizes an individual and/or organization that has applied venture philanthropy approaches in a particularly unique way to address a pressing community need. The recipient of the IVPA serves as an international role model to practitioners, investors, philanthropists and donors for applying venture philanthropy approaches.

Candidates for the IVPA are identified through an international search based on nominations from NESsT staff, Board members, advisors, colleagues and peers around the world. The award is presented bi-annually at the International Venture Philanthropy Forum (the first of which was hosted in Budapest, Hungary, October 1-3, 2001; the second is planned for Santiago, Chile in 2003).

George Roberts, International Venture Philanthropist Award Recipient 2001

The inaugural International Venture Philanthropist Award was presented on Monday, October 1in Budapest to Mr. George Roberts, co-founder of The Roberts Enterprise Development Fund (REDF), and founding partner of private investment firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR). REDF was established in 1997 by The Roberts Foundation, a philanthropic foundation founded by Mr. Roberts and his wife Leanne, and Jed Emerson (who was former Executive Director of REDF and now with Harvard Business School and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation). REDF has a dual mission: to provide operational support to San Francisco-based social enterprises in which it has invested, and to engage the nonprofit and philanthropic community at large in dialogue by publishing research based on its innovative work in venture philanthropy.

To learn more about the pioneering work of REDF, visit: www.redf.org