I’m a Social Purpose Organisation or an interested individual; can I join EVPA?

EVPA’s content, services and activities serve venture philanthropists and social investors (in our world, ‘capital providers’), along with innovative ecosystem builders who help advance societal impact. This is what we do best. However, if you feel as a social enterprise you could benefit from joining EVPA we won’t discourage it.

My organisation is looking for funding, will EVPA Membership help me find this?

EVPA’s first strategic objective is to ‘increase funding and expertise coming into the venture philanthropy and social investment space’. We do this by providing you a member-only space to interact, and both large and intimate activities and trainings that may connect you with like-minded funders or sources of capital. We also play a key role in providing information on the latest EU funding opportunities and how to access them.

We can’t afford the membership fees; can we get a discount?

Our fee structure is fixed, so no exceptions can be made. However, as EVPA tries to be inclusive and wants to stimulate all players from the social impact ecosystem to be part, we have a reduced fee for small organisations. We put the threshold at an average annual operating expenditure* of €300.000.We often find that, if you are currently unable to pay the membership dues, you also might not yet have the capacity to take full advantage of everything our membership has to offer. Please do stay in touch by signing up for our newsletter, and know that most of our knowledge is open source and freely available on our website. You may also ‘try out’ our community first by attending a larger event such as our annual conference as a non-member.

*The average annual operating expenditure or OpEx refers to operational expenses incurred each year such as salary, rent, marketing/ communications, etc.
If these costs are below €300.000, we consider your organization to be a relatively small organization, hence eligible for a reduced membership fee. You will have to argument this eligibility by providing us with financial statements and such.

What do you mean with VAT?

EVPA is a tax payer, hence has to charge VAT for its services. That’s why we ask members for an intracommunity VAT numberon the application form. If your organisation is VAT liable, then we won’t charge Belgian VAT (21%) and will apply reverse charges (EU intracommunity invoice). If your organisation does not have an intracommunity VAT number, please note that EVPA will have to charge 21% (Belgian VAT) on top of your annual membership fee.

Are there additional fees for events or trainings, even if you’re a member? As a non-member can I still attend events or trainings?

Some events, all trainings and our annual conference are open to everyone whether you are an EVPA member or not. All of our publications and tools are open source and freely available. Our core community is committed to investing for impact , thus we advocate for that, no matter what your role is in the ecosystem. Of course, being a member is special. Join intimate member-only activities, member-only newsletters, take advantage of personal peer-to-peer introductions and get access to member-only sector data.

How many staff members can have access to membership?

We usually recommend two persons within an organisation to hold the EVPA membership and who can then coordinate within their organisations to spread news about EVPA opportunities and activities.

I’m already a member of another network. How are you different?

EVPA is a lively, uniquely European community of like-minded social investors and grant-makers who practise, or are interested in, Venture Philanthropy. All share the same vision and a common goal: creating positive social impact. The community is intimate, yet large enough to meet new organisations and is known for its thought leadership in the social impact ecosystem. Come and learn, find your voice and influence policy.