Margaret Hall, GreenLight Fund

Twitter = @MargaretHallGLF

Margaret Hall is the co-Founder and Executive Director of The Greenlight Fund, a national venture philanthropy organization. Before co-founding The Greenlight Fund with John Simon, Margaret worked in several organizations dedicated to helping nonprofits grow in effectiveness and scale and giving people a way to make a difference in their communities. She was a Fellow at the Center for Effective Philanthropy and prior to that Associate Director of the Georgia Center for Nonprofits. She has chaired the Board of Directors of CityCares (now Hands On Network) and Peer Health Exchange Boston. She earned an MPA at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, and a BA from University of Georgia. 

On the show, Margaret explains the GreenLight Fund process, how it is a national model with local action, and the key to scaling this nationwide. She discusses the inspiration for bringing venture philanthropy to the nonprofit sector, and how they are blending private capital with social action. She addresses some of the successes and challenges, as well as their experience with launching a new partnership in Detroit very recently. And she has a call to action for creating a more connected and integrated network of service partners. 

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE SHOW:

In this interview, we discuss:

  1. How The GreenLight Fund model is a marriage of two approaches. 
  2. How the 5-part method works, and why it is effective. 
  3. The 9-month intensive process to select service partners
  4. The key to sustainability and scaling nationally
  5. Why this approach will continue to grow and gain momentum in future years. 

THOUGHT OF THE DAY:

"We are creating an on-the-ground grid across the country that can find and spread the best nonprofit solutions community to community."  -Margaret Hall

LINKS AND RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THE SHOW:

  1. The GreenLight Fund launches GreenLight Detroit. 
  2. Article in The BridgeSpan Group: "Proudly Not Invented Here."
  3. GreenLight Fund Annual Report.
  4. Article about GreenLight Philly.
  5. Article about GreenLight
  6. Book recommendation: "Evicted" by Matthew Desmond (link here).

THANKS SO MUCH FOR LISTENING!

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