Civil Society Organizations, which help to support large numbers of micro- small and medium sized enterprises (MSMEs), often face two challenges which hinder their growth: insufficient funds for start-up capital, and insufficient capacity to support the development of high-impact social enterprises.

The NESsT Venture Fund (NVF) is a non-governmental organization that provides capacity building and financial support, in the form of grants, to civil society organizations (CSOs). These CSOs, in turn, work to develop social enterprises, enabling them to achieve a greater mission impact, as well as increasing their overall funding levels and generate revenue. NVF has been operating in Eastern Europe since 2001 and in Chile since 2002.

The IFC’s Grassroots Business Initiative is supporting the expansion of the NVF model from Chile to Peru.

Specific project activities include:

· Conduct preliminary studies, including study on the legal environment for CSOs in Peru, and case studies of CSOs in Peru
· Conduct social enterprise competitions to identify CSO candidates to enter the early stage portfolio
· Support later stage portfolio activities, including venture grants to the participating CSOs, ongoing technical assistant to the selected CSOs and the development of a Business Advisory Network

For more information, visit: http://www.nesst.org/