The NUS Enterprise Centre and the Asia Centre for Social Entrepreneurship and Philanthropy (ACSEP) at NUS Business School have co-organised the Social Business Forum, which brings Professor Muhammad Yunus together with leaders of a number of far-sighted global companies to share their experience and insights in embracing social business models to do good and do well.

Date/Time: 22 Feb 2012, registration starts at 9.30am

Venue: Hon Sui Sen Auditorium, NUS Business School

Full details can be found here.

This role is to act as Membership Services Manager to support AVPN’s marketing to prospective members and to manage events and activities for members and prospective members.

You will be based in our Singapore headquarters and travel within the region as needed. AVPN has a small team and you will work directly with the CEO and COO. You will have direct contact with our members, prospective members and other stakeholders as AVPN builds the venture philanthropy eco-system across the region.

Responsibilities:
This role includes the following activities

• Developing and implementing AVPN’s membership services program
• Organizing events in cities across Asia including small invitation only roundtable discussions, workshops and seminars
• Travelling with other team members on research and marketing trips and acting as “floor manager” at some events in different countries
• Handling enquiries from prospective members about the application process for membership
• Maintaining profiles of members and top prospects
• Desk-based research and networking for prospective new members
• Preparing internal briefing papers for marketing trips
• Developing content about our events and about our members for the AVPN website

Requirements:
To be successful in this role you will have:

• A passion to contribute to the growth of philanthropy in Asia
• 7 to 8 years of marketing, event management or member/customer service experience
• A confident and professional approach
• A high degree of attention to detail and accuracy
• A strong work ethic, integrity and ability to work with confidential information
• Excellent interpersonal skills, motivation and energy
• An outgoing personality and able to work without close supervision
• Ability to work in a small team and be flexible according to overall needs
• Familiarity with Salesforce.com or similar contact management software
• Excellent working knowledge of MS Office products (or equivalent)

If you are the person that we are looking for please email your complete resume to info@avpn.asia

The last three months of 2011 have been a busy time for AVPN with a series of events for prospective members and the soft launch of our membership. Please visit the AVPN website to learn about the benefits of membership.

In October, AVPN’s “Venture Philanthropy In Practice” Roadshows were held in Mumbai, Singapore, Hong Kong and Tokyo. The key speakers were from Impetus Trust in the UK and New Profit in the USA, and they were joined in panel sessions by leading local speakers. More than 400 people attended the events representing the diverse sectors that make up the venture philanthropy eco-system.

Overall the roadshow attendees were grant-making foundations 15%, charities or social enterprises 15%, professional service firms 14%, venture philanthropy practitioners 13%, private equity 12%, corporations 10% and the remaining 21% a mix of universities, government-related, private banks and media.

In November, AVPN’s European Study Tour was attended by 13 people from 9 Asian countries. The programme consisted of 1.5 days of seminars in London featuring leading UK-based VP practitioners. This was followed by the European Venture Philanthropy Association’s annual conference in Turin (400 delegates from more than 30 countries) and a half day of special seminars in Turin with leading European VP firms.

The AVPN team is now planning a program of local and regional events for 2012 as we build our membership base across Asia. We will provide more information on forthcoming events in January.

We encourage you to apply early as a Founder Member during the soft-launch period. By becoming a Founder Member you can show your early support for the AVPN effort and help us rapidly build critical mass. In our future member profiles and directories we will continue to recognise those organisations who were Founder Members (i.e. who join before 31 March 2012). We hope you will join us in building the VP / Social Investment community across Asia.

With best wishes for the Holiday Season and a Prosperous and Happy New Year,

Simon Chadwick (CEO) & Kevin Teo (COO)

* Yvonne Li, CEO, Avantage Ventures

* Philo Alto, Founder, Asia Value Advisors Limited

Hosted by the Corporate Responsibility Committee, Entrepreneurs/SME Committee and Financial Services Committee

“A gathering of over 400 people marked the 7^th annual meeting of the European Venture Philanthropy Association (EVPA) on 16-17 November in Turin, Italy. The theme of this year’s conference, Venture Philanthropy as a Catalyst for Societal Change, drew participants from Africa, the Americas, Asia, Australia and Europe and included study tour representatives from the newly formed Asian Venture Philanthropy Network (AVPN) in Singapore.”

Full article here.

The breakdown of the attendees overall was grant making foundations 15%, charities or social enterprises 15%, professional service firms 14%, venture philanthropy practitioners 13%, private equity 12%, corporations 10% and the remaining 21% a mix of universities, government-related, private banks and media.

We received consistently positive feedback about the morning roundtable discussion format and plan more of this style of event in 2012. The key themes at these sessions were developing deal flow, applying VP to grant making and impact investing strategies, measuring social impact, bringing more human talent into the VP space, and the early stage of VP in Asia.

Impetus Trust from the UK and New Profit from the USA shared their experience as pioneers of VP in their markets and described some of the roadblocks and bumps along the way to becoming successful and much larger organisations. The local panel members at the seminars in each city contrasted their experiences and identified the challenges of operating in markets where the philanthropic and social enterprise sectors are relatively new or niche activities.

AVPN is now preparing to open for founder members at the end of November and then for broader membership from the Spring of 2012. We invite you to engage with us as we develop the VP community across Asia.

Singapore Seminar - 12 Oct 2011

Hong Kong Seminar - 14 Oct 2011

Tokyo Seminar - 17 Oct 2011

Event Social iCon 2011
Date: Wed 9 Nov 2011
Time: 9am till 6pm
Location: SMU Administration Building, 81 Victoria Street, Singapore 188065

More on Social iCON: http://www.lcsi.smu.edu.sg/Social_icon/2011/index.asp

This year, Social iCon, the Lien Centre’s biennial flagship event, brings together leading global practitioners who will share insights on why and how cross-sector collaboration must work. We invite business, civil society organisations, the public sector and all interested change makers to join us to “Connect, Collaborate and Co-Create”. This event will provide new perspectives on how corporations can go beyond CSR to create impactful social change and new market opportunities, how social sector organisations can consider new ways of working with the government and private sector, and how cross-sector collaboration is at the forefront of public sector innovation.

This gives the top Japanese private equity and venture capital fund managers and investors direct access to AVPN and the opportunity to learn about VP and support our mission of promoting VP in their country and across the region.   The financial community, including private equity and hedge fund managers, are active supporters of venture philanthropy.  Private equity firms and/or their founders often provide funding, expertise and their time to venture philanthropy practitioners.

If you are attending the event then please look out for Doug Miller, Simon Chadwick or Ken Ito.   For more information and to sign up for the conference please contact AVCJ directly http://www.avcjjapan.com/

This gives the top Indian private equity and venture capital fund managers and investors direct access to AVPN and the opportunity to learn about VP and support our mission of promoting VP in the country and across the region.   The financial community, including private equity and hedge fund managers, are active supporters of venture philanthropy.  Private equity firms and/or their founders often provide funding, expertise and their time to venture philanthropy practitioners.

If you are attending the event then please look out for Doug Miller, Simon Chadwick or Rob John.  For more information and to sign up for the conference please contact PEI directly at http://www.peimedia.com/Product.aspx?cID=7441&pID=221309 .

This research brief seeks to sharpen the dialog and enable informed action by philanthropic funders, venture intermediaries, and social businesses. The approach taken is not to simplistically find a common ground of discourse. Rather, it is to highlight the perspective of the “other side” with the goal of having a constructive debate on the topic when stakeholders are on the “same page” of the issues being discussed.

Click here to download the report.

Link to Asia Value Advisor’s website.