Ida Beerhalter, FAMILY OFFICE
Holm Keller, KENUP FOUNDATION
Viva Volkmann, CHARITE FUNDRAISING OFFICE
Verena Haas, CHARITE
Fundraising is a key activity for all projects. Irrespective of what source you are tapping into: The prerequisite for a successful fundraising strategy is first of all a good story of what you are exactly doing and why (told in a way that everybody can understand, but particularly the people you are adressing!) and how exactly this is impactful. In concentrating on this, you are likely to have well analyzed how much skin you are putting in the game, what you want to be achieving and what resources you need to do that - including how much and what kind of help you need from the persons you are adressing.
Fundraising is thus all about applying the entrepreneurial method to have the biggest impact with a given capital as you can; capital is certainly not all about money, but about money as well.
In previous SPARK Entrepreneurial Forums we have been discussing several options how to raise money: From national instruments for translational academic groups who want to become startups to possibilities for startups to acquire venture capital or capital from local and European investment banks.
In this SPARK Entrepreneurial Forum we want to be highlighting an alternative pathway for academic ventures: Fundraising suitable to attract altruistic money e.g. from family offices or foundations.
For this we are particularly happy to host this Panel discussion with partners from our network: Viva Volkmann is heading the „Charite Fundraising Stabsstelle“ and she will share her knowledge on how best to work towards a well-tailored fundraising strategy that also fit in the Overall strategy of your home Institution. Together with Verena Haas from the Charite, they are in the process of executing a strategy for an academic project and we are thankful that Verena Haas will share her learnings setting up a fundraising strategy for her innovative project with professional help.
The dialogue ultimately occurs between two sides: Ida Beerhalter is on the side of the family offices and she is willing to give her insight into what questions she as an investor is expecting projects to be adressing: What makes a project attractive for altruistic investment and what impact on society is she expecting her investment to have through a selected project?
Last but not least we are happy to have Holm Keller with us. Holm has a long-standing experience in building Innovation infrastructure at universities and working from within foundations. He will give us a perspective on what general laws govern the logic of altruistic investments and share some knowledge about investment infrastructure in Europe.
This Forum will run as a roundtable discussion that we will be opening for general discussion with all of you from within and outside the SPARK network. Please join us for the networking event with wine and cheese after the discussion.