Rinconada Ventures Executive Summary

A Daunting Challenge

Founded in 1998, Rinconada Ventures was born out of a passion for a new model of high-impact philanthropy.  The founding team set out to develop what would become a beacon for others interested in sustainable social change, focusing on their key areas of strength and experience—disability rights, education and the environment.

Rinconada’s founders had been frustrated with the limited opportunities for investment in exciting social ventures designed to survive the pressures of the real world.  The most visionary social entrepreneurs too often lacked access to the business management resources that would help them succeed over the long haul.  The most promising initiatives often faded, in time, as they depleted the energy and resources of their overextended founders.

A Better Way

Rinconada’s team has drawn on the strength of hundreds of talented individuals to begin changing that equation.  Rinconada offers innovative financing—usually low interest loans and investments—and management consulting support to enterprises for which the opportunities are the greatest, working aggressively to lower the otherwise inherent risks.

Rinconada's Model

Rinconada focuses the energy and diverse skills of uniquely powerful teams, uniting:

• Visionary entrepreneurs dedicated to bringing about enduring social change
• Passionate pragmatists offering critical business management expertise
• Strategic, revolutionary donors looking to maximize their impact and to pioneer a bold model for meaningful philanthropy

The People of Rinconada

Since founding Rinconada, nationally known disability activist and educator Mark Breimhorst has worked hard to develop a strong Board comprised of individuals with diverse backgrounds and talents.  Over time, Rinconada has assembled an impressive network of leaders in both the private and public sectors who are willing to roll up their sleeves and dive into the challenges met by Rinconada’s outstanding social entrepreneurs.  Well over 100 donors have contributed resources—financial and management assistance—to Rinconada, allowing the organization to raise over $350,000 in its short history.

Rinconada in Action:  Two Case Studies

The Mosaic Project

Lara Mendel was bullied when she was a child because she was a girl, short and Jewish.  As an adult and as an educator, she’s learned that things haven’t changed—kids still have conflict with others they see as different—in terms of race, class, gender, clique, disability, body shape and more.  She has designed an outdoor curriculum to teach children how to work through these stereotypes.  Traditional foundations loved the model but would only support it with a longer track record—which required money.  Rinconada broke through this Catch-22 by loaning Lara the money to get started and helping her develop a competitive business model.  Today, Mosaic is thriving and well on its way to self-sufficiency.  Students and their teachers rave about the program.  It’s changing lives.

Access Ability

Gale Schmidt’s church needed a wheelchair ramp for disabled congregants, and Gale volunteered to design a modular ramp.  More people asked her for help building their own ramps.  Soon Gale was running a small business.  Although the demand was enough to justify Gale working full time, she lacked the capital and marketing know-how to reach more customers.  She was also not familiar with the disability community or how best to communicate with it.  Rinconada solved her dilemma by designing her marketing plan, loaning her the money to market her ramps and helping her navigate the disability community and connect with the right people.  Only two years later, Gale has sold 50 ramps, repaid her loan and doubled her revenue.  Even more important: 30 people who could not have afforded ramps only a couple of years ago before can now easily enter and exit their homes.

Rinconada seeks to facilitate and participate in the exciting new opportunity provided by the growing number of social entrepreneurs. A social entrepreneur is someone — ambitious, creative, and above all committed to social change — who wants to start an organization that will generate a significant social contribution. The best of these social entrepreneurs are rethinking the traditional nonprofit model according to a double-bottom-line: in terms of both financial viability and social return. A list of organizations that have approached Rinconada for support can be provided upon request.

Rinconada seeks out philanthropists who want to contribute to an organization’s long-term viability in addition to its short-term programs. The Rinconada philanthropist will find social entrepreneurs appealing because of their shared characteristics of creativity, responsibility, and commitment to social change. Rinconada further encourages its philanthropists to give in innovative ways that are meaningful to them, including gifts of time and expertise to Rinconada entrepreneurs as well as monetary donations.

• Many would-be social entrepreneurs are discouraged by the difficulty of finding and keeping funding, particularly at the start-up stage. By bringing together social entrepreneurs and new-style philanthropists, Rinconada aims to ensure that creative, talented, and committed people retain the ability to contribute to their communities in meaningful ways.

• Rinconada takes a venture capital approach to funding its entrepreneurs, emphasizing a longer-term partnership than traditional foundations typically offer. When these enterprises are able to generate a financial return from an infusion of capital and management support, a portion of that revenue returns to the Rinconada corpus to fund future enterprises.

• Through our board and staff, social networks, and pool of interested Rinconada donors, we are able to coordinate teams of volunteers that provide the management support necessary to ensure the long-term viability of Rinconada entrepreneurs. Rinconada will offer expert advice and support, in addition to monetary investments, in the following areas:

Strategic Planning
Management Techniques
Bookkeeping and Financial Planning
Legal and Liability Issues
Personnel Policies
Technological Support