Social Impact Blog

During SocialVentures’ annual Positioned to Prosper event, which took place on August 7 at the Columbus Museum of Art, Allen Proctor, President & CEO, SocialVentures, announced that SocialVentures will co-host the first annual Philanthropitch in Columbus on March 4, 2019. Philanthropitch is a social impact fast-pitch competition on a mission to scale innovative nonprofits. Presented […]

During the August 7 presentation at SocialVentures’ annual Positioned to Prosper event, Allen Proctor announced that Social Ventures Fund has made its first investment in Roosevelt Coffee Roasters. Social Ventures Fund, LLC lent $50,000 to Roosevelt Coffee, LLC. Kenny Sipes, Founder of The Roosevelt Coffeehouse, came to the stage to talk about his new business […]

Equitas Health (formerly AIDS Resource Center Ohio), is a regional not-for-profit community-based healthcare system and federally qualified community health center. One of the nation’s largest HIV/AIDS, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer/questioning (LGBTQ) healthcare organizations, Equitas Health operates two social enterprises, Equitas Health Pharmacy and PRIZM Magazine. All of the profits from these two ventures […]

Lily Vail leads the Kiva lending program in Columbus. The online platform allows small-business owners to access zero interest, crowdfunded loans that range from a few hundred dollars up to $10,000. In 2005, Kiva started as a platform to connect borrowers and lenders abroad. In the United States, it operates as a direct lending platform […]

YXU is a for-profit clothing company that sells branded shirts and sponsors community events intended to empower and encourage young adults. The company’s name and logo is “YOU” with an X through the “O” representing its tag line, “Leave Your Mark.” Founded in 2016, YXU believes that every individual can make a difference when they […]

Over the past four years, Central Ohio has experienced a rapid expansion of the social enterprise movement. Strong and growing, today it numbers over 100 social enterprises. To continue this momentum, SocialVentures has introduced sponsorship packages as a way to showcase our community’s belief in business as the key to creating significant and lasting social […]

Founded in 1987, Glass Axis has been Columbus’ long-standing hub for creating opportunities through advancing glass art education. Launched by a handful of alumni of The Ohio State University who were in need of a studio to hone their craft, the intent was to create a space where the community could engage with artists and […]

Eddie Rapp founded Fairhaven Lawn Care in 2008 to provide jobs and housing to the homeless in Lancaster. Four years later he launched Patriot Pride Painting Co. to do the same for homeless veterans. Fairhaven provides residential and commercial lawn care throughout Central Ohio and Patriot Pride provides residential and commercial interior and exterior painting […]

In 2011, Zero Waste Event Productions (ZWEP) first emerged as a project housed within the nonprofit Rural Action. Based in Athens, Ohio, the project initially focused solely on the Nelsonville Music Festival, and has since expanded into a fully operational social enterprise. Rural Action is a membership-based nonprofit working in the southeast and central eastern […]

Amber Runyon founded Eleventh Candle Company in 2015 as a for-profit spin-off of her nonprofit, Legacy. Eleventh Candle Co. is a social enterprise whose social impact is to redeem, restore, empower, and equip those vulnerable to human trafficking, abuse, exploitation, and addiction. Working in tandem, the social enterprise provides the jobs and the funding for […]