Announcing Investment Partnership with Mary's Center
We are pleased to announce that Venture Philanthropy Partners (VPP) has entered into a multi-year investment partnership with Mary’s Center, a dynamic organization whose mission is to build better futures through health care, education, and social services that embrace a culturally diverse community. VPP’s investment is designed to help Mary’s Center achieve their aspiration to strengthen overall community health by delivering integrated human services to support individual and family well-being and by expanding their presence to serve more children and families on a broader scale in the National Capital Region.
The Investment Agreement will provide Mary’s Center with strategic assistance and funding of up to $3,000,000 over a four-year period (this is in addition to the $400,000 already provided for the business planning phase). During the first phase of this investment partnership, VPP will provide funding and strategic assistance to help Mary’s Center enhance and augment their infrastructure and begin their expansion in accordance with their new status as a Federally Qualified Healthcare Center (FQHC). Under the terms of this agreement, $800,000 in funding will be disbursed to Mary’s Center in the first year, with the remaining $2,200,000 in funding contingent upon Mary’s Center’s achievement of annual milestones over the remaining term of the investment partnership.
During the past seven months, Mary’s Center Founder, President, and CEO Maria Gomez, her leadership team, and Board of Directors have engaged in a rigorous planning process that resulted in the creation of a theory of change, a plan for expansion (Mary’s Center Plan for Growth), and an outcomes framework. The expansion plan identifies three implementation phases for growth commencing in 2005 and culminating in 2009, at which time Mary’s Center will have the capacity to triple the number of clients it serves and reach more than 24,000 children, teens, and families annually.
VPP’s funding and strategic assistance, as defined in the Agreement, supports Mary’s Center in its work to reach its long-term goals, including:
Gomez discussed the first stage of the investment partnership, saying “what was so valuable was the opportunity for the visionaries, the doers, and the managers in this organization to step back and look at what we do, who we do it for, who we do it with, and what we want to be doing 5-10 years from now. We’re always too busy doing, too busy trying to meet the needs, and too busy trying to bring in the funding. So it was an amazing experience to work with experts who listened to our stories about what we have done here at Mary’s Center and listened to our dreams about where we can go.”
Please join me in congratulating Mary’s Center’s Board and leadership team and VPP team members Steve Seleznow, Shirley Marcus Allen, and Eleanor Rutland for making this partnership a reality. Please visit the VPP website to learn more about Mary’s Center.
VPP Board and Investors can access private documents on the VPP partnership with Mary’s Center, including the Investment Agreement, in the secure area of the site. If you need assistance accessing the secure area, please contact Suzy Twohig at stwohig@morino.org.
My best, Mario
VPP is a nonprofit philanthropic investment organization that provides growth capital and strategic assistance to high potential community-based organizations serving the core developmental, learning, and educational needs of children of low-income families in the National Capital Region. VPP is incorporated as a nonprofit public charity and operates as a support organization to the Community Foundation for the National Capital Region.