Nonprofit TechSoup Raises Money Via Regulation A+ From Large And Small Investors
Nonprofit TechSoup Raises Money Via Regulation A+ From Large And Small Investors
In 2012, Congress passed and President Obama signed the JOBS Act, a law that authorized investment crowdfunding. A wide variety of for-profit businesses, many of them having a social mission, have taken advantage of the law to raise money from small investors under either Title III, implemented as Regulation Crowdfunding or Title VI, implemented as Regulation A+.
TechSoup is an international nonprofit that helps deliver technology to other nonprofits around the world. This innovative organization is using Regulation A+ to offer securities in the form of low-interest loans to the public.
CEO Rebecca Masisak joined me for this conversation to explain important details around the $11.5 million offering. Institutional investors are participating with investments in the millions of dollars. Small investors are participating in increments of just $50.
This is an innovative application of the JOBS Act and a rare opportunity for ordinary investors to participate in an impact investment opportunity.
Interview with Rebecca Masisak, the CEO of TechSoup.
The following is the pre-interview with Rebecca Masisak. Be sure to watch the recorded interview above.
For-profit/Nonprofit: 501(c)3 Nonprofit
Revenue model: Donations, Impact investments through a direct public offering and fee for service.
Scale: Founded in San Francisco in 1987. Now a nonprofit network operating in 236 countries and territories, with a base in San Francisco and 200 employees around the world. We also have 100+ FTEs in the network who create and operate TechSoup programs. Our mission is to build a dynamic bridge that leverages technology to enable connections and innovative solutions for a more equitable planet. We power up social impact by providing NGOs, nonprofits, and others with the technology products, services, funding, and knowledge they need to pursue their mission and improve lives.
What is the problem you solve and how do you solve it?
TechSoup’s critical role in building and supporting a vibrant civil society through technology and its plans to expand its reach through innovative impact investing.
About TechSoup
TechSoup, founded in San Francisco in 1987, is a nonprofit network operating in 236 countries and territories, with a base in San Francisco and 200 employees around the world. Our mission is to build a dynamic bridge that leverages technology to enable connections and innovative solutions for a more equitable planet.
We power up social impact by providing NGOs, nonprofits, and others with the technology products, services, funding, and knowledge they need to pursue their mission and improve lives. Our “triple win” business model that has taken modest investments and turned them into successful, highly leveraged offerings. We’ve worked with more than one million organizations and have facilitated distribution of more than $11.1billion in technology products and grants.
TechSoup is an impact engine: For every $100 invested, we’re able to distribute an estimated $47,000 of additional resources to the nonprofit sector. That formula for economic impact translates into deep, meaningful and life-changing impact that happens every day with TechSoup’s project work, educational endeavors, people connections and collaborations.
Direct Public Offering
With nonprofits needs growing around the world, TechSoup recently launched a $11.5 million Growth Capital Campaign to support an ambitious initiative to nearly double the number of nonprofit organizations we serve. The Nonprofit Finance Fund provided a $4 million loan to support TechSoup’s campaign.
Another very exciting initiative is the TechSoup Direct Public Offering. TechSoup believes it is the first nonprofit that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has qualified to raise funds nationally through a Regulation A+ / Tier 2 offering.
A DPO is a funding source that enables individuals and corporations to invest directly into the growth and mission of TechSoup. TechSoup’s DPO will be leveraged to distribute more than $5.4 billion of additional resources to the nonprofit sector. Microsoft Philanthropies recently invested $1 million in the DPO which will enable TechSoup to develop new offerings to help nonprofits utilize technology to amplify their mission and impact, and it will encourage investors of all stripes to support TechSoup’s growth initiative and catalyze the impact to the sector.
The DPO embodies our belief that TechSoup’s stakeholders come from a range of economic backgrounds but share a common belief in the importance of a strong infrastructural backbone for civil society. It enables us to offer debt investment with interest, as an impact investment not just to institutional funders, but also to US‐based individuals and smaller organizations in our community with meaningful but relatively low investment minimums of $50.
We believe the DPO is more than just an investment—it’s an opportunity to invest side-by-side with TechSoup and civil society organizations everywhere to build a better world. These funds will ultimately be used to:
Expand our nonprofit marketplace
Provide increased validation and data services
Develop more apps for good
Improve our business processes and systems
Create the Cooperative Technology Platform (CTP), a groundbreaking new service delivery model
DPO Offering: https://svx.us.com/
More about TechSoup:
Twitter: @TechSoup
Facebook: facebook.com/techsoupglobal
Linkedin: linkedin.com/company/techsoup
Instagram: @techsoup
Website: meet.techsoup.org
TechSoup provides the transformative technology solutions, the digital platforms, and the in-person experiences that enable people to work together toward a more equitable world. With 70 partner NGOs around the world, TechSoup manages the only global philanthropy program that brings together more than 100 tech companies to provide technology donations to NGOs everywhere. TechSoup’s data and validation services enable companies, foundations, and governments to connect their philanthropic resources with vetted NGOs around the world. In the past 30 years, TechSoup has reached 1.06 million NGOs and facilitated distribution of technology products and grants valued at more than $11.1 billion. https://www.techsoup.org/
Rebecca Masisak. Photo Credit: TechSoup
Rebecca Masisak’s bio:
Twitter: @rmasrmas
Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/rebeccamasisak
Rebecca Masisak joined TechSoup in 2001 to launch and chart the growth of its technology product donation program and social enterprise.
After she successfully established the program in North America, she developed an international expansion model and what would become the TechSoup Global Network. Today, it serves an international NGO audience in 236 countries and territories. Under her leadership, TechSoup has distributed software and hardware product donations that have enabled recipients to save more than US$10.7 billion worldwide.
She led TechSoup’s successful bid to be selected by a consortium that was guided by the Council on Foundations as the host organization to create NGOsource. NGOsource is an equivalency determination service that helps U.S. grantmakers streamline their international grantmaking process. NGOsource has rapidly expanded its reach and is active in 126 countries.
As CEO, Rebecca has built TechSoup’s capacity and reach to support the entire portfolio of TechSoup’s programs. These programs bring products, information, human capacity, and resources to the communities who need them most.
Rebecca speaks about social enterprise, global networks, and data as a resource for civil society and was awarded the Full Circle Fund’s prestigious Full Impact Award in Technology. She’s a board member of the Telecentre.org Foundation and volunteers with SAGE (Students for the Advancement of Global Entrepreneurship). Rebecca proudly co-leads the Bay Area Social Enterprise Leadership Forum. In 2017, she was named one of “The Most Influential Women in Business” by the San Francisco Business Times and was included in the annual list of the 50 most influential leaders in the U.S. nonprofit sector by the Nonprofit Times. She obtained her MBA from the Columbia University Business School.
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