In the month of March AVPN conducted two presentations in Beijing on the subject of how to set up a Venture Philanthropy Fund as well as a deep dive into the Inspiring Scotland model.
On March 6th, Andrew spoke at the CFPA Microfinance Salon, a series of get together seminar/lectures organized by CFPA Microfinance for the inclusive finance community based in Beijing. The event was attended by an audience of 50-60 people from various different sectors. Participants included representatives from nonprofit organizations (World Vision, Oxfam, Give2Asia), financial sector (CreditEase, China Merchant Bank, China Investment Consulting), academia (Beijing University, Renmin University of China) foundations (China Charities Aid Foundation for Children) among others.
Participants were very engaged and interested in the topic of venture philanthropy as well as AVPN in general. There were questions regarding AVPN’s strategy in China, the type of services provided by AVPN; how the Inspiring Scotland VP model can be applied in China; examples of VP model failures and the concept of impact investment.
On March 10th, AVPN was also invited to speak at a roundtable for students from the Executive Masters of Philanthropy (EMP) program at the Beijing Normal University. The participants were all involved in the philanthropic sector in China and were particularly interested on the details of setting up a venture philanthropy fund in China.