We Are Venture Philanthropists

In the mid-70s, United Parcel Service created an endowment fund at the foundation which now is valued at almost $ 50 million. Beginning in 1999, a portion of the annual earnings is being used to fund the UPS National Venture Fund (NVF).

The UPS National Venture Fund uses a competitive process to award matching grants for new ventures—an emerging philanthropic strategy in this economic environment. Mostly, we fund innovative collaborations aimed at improving undergraduate education or expanding the resources available for that central purpose. Often, the funded projects use technology to achieve their goals.

All the awards are made to FIHE’s state fund partners but the guidelines do not require that every member college of a state association is participating in the project. For example, a matching grant was awarded to our West Virginia partner to assist five member colleges in three states in establishing a highly innovative, shared administrative computing/processing center and systems.

Each grant must be matched at least 1:1, but most grantees have greatly exceeded this minimal requirement.

A FIHE publication, “Catalyst for Collaboration,” outlines all the collaborations that have been formed through funding by the UPS National Venture Fund. Examples of new ventures that have been funded are as follows:

• The formation of the Faculty Development Collaborative in Technology (FDCT), which uses proven organizational structures and processes to undertake faculty development in using the new technologies to enrich instruction. Collaboratives are formed on a statewide basis.
• An Administration/Business Office Collaboration among six colleges in Ohio analyzed administrative functions and reduced expenses by 30% while increasing student satisfaction with services. This program has spread around Ohio, and the foundation funded migration of the program to Michigan and Kentucky.
• A Collaborative Higher Education Center was developed in the Downriver/southern Wayne County region of Detroit, bringing the educational resources of five institutions to an underserved area of the city.
• A Tennessee consortium was formed to provide and manage employee benefits at a greatly reduced cost for private colleges throughout the state.
• A consortium was formed in Wisconsin to use video conferencing to deliver and receive classes not otherwise available to small colleges because of low enrollment.