Coastal Ventures Limited Partnership: Balancing a Sustainable Investment Strategy with a Social Mission Harvard Case Solution & Analysis

Nat Henshaw, president of CEI Ventures Inc (CVI), a non-profit subsidiary of Coastal Enterprises Inc. (CEI), was involved in the balance. He was the head of non-profit venture capital fund, Coastal Ventures Limited Partnership (CVLP), with a social mission, who appreciate quality work, employee ownership, and environmental stewardship. Henshaw and his board of directors were also thinking about the next venture capital fund, which they wanted to have in place when they started to fold the current investments of the Fund. Did they have the right balance between profit and social mission? If they could invest the remaining 60% of funds CVLP in the next two years in a manner that struck the right balance? And they have quite a good reputation in order to attract investment in a new fund? Many students are not familiar with this type of institution and the case gives enough details of the institutional structure of the venture capital community development fund and how it works to serve as an introduction to the subject. He shows how both institutional and operational fund aims to promote both a profitable investment and social mission. However, the fund faces significant challenges in maintaining this balance. Case can serve as a platform to discuss the effectiveness of the institution in promoting the economic development of the community. In general, this case can be used to teach students about the "double bottom-line", where the bottom line is a business that is a subsidiary of a non-profit organization that creates a business in the first place as part of its efforts to fulfill its mission. Such events are becoming more common in the U.S. non-profit sector, and they raise questions about the legitimacy of a non-profit subsidiary and blurring the boundaries between commercial and non-profit world. HKS Case Number 1669.0 "Hide
Guy Stuart on 26 pages. Publication Date: 01 Oct 2001. Prod. #: HKS227-PDF-ENG

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