Purpose Futures Fellowship: Emerging Fund Managers

Applications are closed.

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Summary:

We are excited to announce the launch of a new PFF cohort for Emerging Fund Managers. The program is designed for fund managers working on new capital vehicles targeting business succession and/or real estate, and innovating on shared ownership, governance and financing.

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Purpose works with businesses, community leaders, and investors to develop radically more equitable stakeholder ownership, governance, & financing forms. 

In the Fall of 2020, we launched the first cohort of the Purpose Futures Fellowship (PFF) to support real estate initiatives focused on economic development, displacement prevention, and community wealth building. Through that program, we helped the visionary leaders of Kensington Corridor Trust, The Guild, and Trust Neighborhoods design and implement evergreen real-estate Stewardship models across the country. 

In the last 2 years we’ve also supported closing dozens of individual shared-ownership deals for mid-sized business succession, developing a replicable toolkit and approach for solving common challenges in these deals.

This new fellowship brings together everything we’ve learned from supporting these projects to successfully structure their unique shared ownership models and raise capital into them. The 2021-2022 fellowship program is focused on new capital vehicles which can help take theses new innovations in shared-ownership models to the market.

2021-2022 Fellowship Program Overview

Purpose Futures Fellows are prototyping a new economy that is more intentional, equitable, and compassionate. Building alternative models is hard, so Purpose supports Fellows in designing and legally implementing new capital models that redefine community wealth building, impact investing and philanthropy. 

During the program, our team adds capacity to Fellows’ teams and facilitates collaborations between Fellows working on similar projects. This gives us the opportunity to co-develop shared legal approaches, financial research, and infrastructure across projects.

Shared needs we are already actively investigating include: solving liquidity challenges for evergreen structures, finding replicable modes of community inclusion across asset classes, and scalable ways to de-risking investor participation in long-term capital vehicles. 

This type of work is technical, but it also taps into our deepest beliefs about human nature and our own potential. We believe that repairing systemic relationships to money and power is more effective when done alongside deeply aligned collaborators and trusted advisors. The Fellowship is thus intended to both accelerate fund formation and encourage greater intentionality. 

Over a 10-12 month period, Fellows will participate in strategic advising, exclusive programming, deployment of shared legal and fundraising resources, and a community of practice working to successfully develop and/or launch more inclusive capital vehicles.

Fellows will Receive: 

• 30k worth of pro-bono expert support from our team and network

• Grant and/or catalytic investment capital raise support

• Access to a shared legal research budget (with for-profit, non-profit, cooperative, tax and trust expertise)

• Our internal library of best practices, legal lessons, and examples gathered through helping dozens of companies and communities raise $250m+ in capital for Stewardship forms and meaningfully including communities in governance;

• Hands-on support developing their fund, from business model, legal structures, pitch materials, operational infrastructure, demand assessment, and pilot deal(s) for their new capital vehicle— including guidance from Purpose’s network of creative legal practitioners and investors;

• Guidance from guest experts and fellow practitioners working to integrate shared ownership, governance and finance into their investment theses; 

• Access to a cohort of other funds actively in the market to share best practices and experiences with;

• Connection with aligned investors who can give candid feedback as development occur;

Fellowship Program Includes:  

• Strategic Advising: Weekly or Bi-weekly team advisory sessions with Purpose team & network mentors as needed.

• Ongoing Async Support: Of-the-moment support, via connection to our team through asynchronous online tools.

• Tailored Expert Sessions: Highly relevant sessions with Purpose team and guest experts (ie. deal sourcing, diligence, legal, marketing, capital sourcing, investors comms, etc.), tailored to immediate needs of fellows’ projects.

• Community: Monthly meetings with all Fellows to share progress, workshop approaches, and tackle common challenges. 

• Investor Session: Opportunities to present to and get feedback from potential funders. 

• 1-2 in-person gatherings if possible (Fall/Winter of 2021 & Spring of 2022).

Fellow and Fund Profile:

We’re looking for inventive, diverse, intelligent leaders who are actively researching or are in the process of setting up an innovative capital vehicle with a shared ownership thesis, and targeting mature assets such as mid-size businesses succession or real estate. 

We aim to support those who seek to change the default settings of power and money in our existing systems through inclusive governance, community benefit, and long-term-oriented structures. 

We are inviting leaders from across the US to apply to the program. We are especially interested in supporting projects innovating on shared ownership funds, community real estate, new models for local economic development, integrated capital vehicles, mission-aligned private equity, and alternative capital structures. We particularly encourage fund managers from underrepresented communities to apply.

Applicants will have: 

• A Fund concept(s) with an innovative shared-ownership, governance and finance thesis for deeper social impact outcomes;

• Experience in finance, fund management and/or fundraising (business support, direct investing, lending, philanthropy, etc.); 

• An ability to execute on their project proposals over the next 12-18 months and a willingness to commit to the program (typically 5-10hrs per month between sessions and direct support, but flexibly designed to meet needs of Fellows)

Application Process:

Direct Submission:

Please apply by submitting this short form, which asks for a brief (up to 2 page) abstract describing the project's investment thesis, current stage of development, and key challenges, along with bios of core team members.

For more information: please book a time with us, or email fellows@purpose.ag

Timing: Application deadline is July 30th, 2021.  Programming and coaching will run from October 2021 - October 2022.