Enspiral Foundation Venture Profile

Venture Description

The Enspiral Foundation is a charitable company co-owned by the Enspiral Members. Its mission is to support the network as a whole, facilitate collaboration between the people and ventures, and further the overall social mission of Enspiral. It is a ‘meta’ venture that can be imagined as a hub, a platform, an umbrella, or a garden. The Foundation is governed by its constitution, stewarded by its directors, and is intended to be a lean platform upon which distributed leadership, experimentation, collaboration, and interdependence can thrive, enhancing all the diverse expressions of Enspiral’s values through the various purposes of the people and ventures within the network.

Key personnel

  • Ants Cabraal - Director
  • Bart De Vries - Director
  • Robert Guthrie - Director
  • Susan Basterfield - Director
  • Enspiral Members - Shareholders
  • Enspiral Ops - Administration

Contact: Enspiral Ops, foundation@enspiral.com

Links

Founding Date & Brief History

The Enspiral Foundation was formed in 2012, as part of Enspiral’s transition from a single venture to a network of ventures that use the Foundation as a vehicle for collaboration. The past board members have included Joshua Vial, Josh Forde, Anake Goodall, and Vivian Maidaborn.

Legal structure

Limited liability company with a charitable constitution. The Foundation is owned collectively by the Enspiral Members, who each hold a single share that represents decision-making stakeholding and stewardship. Shares are non-dividend baring, and all income is re-invested in the network and achieving the social mission.

Business Model

The Foundation’s income is made up of paid contributions from individuals and ventures in the Enspiral network. The Foundation also has occasionally received grant funding.

In the past, the Foundation has run initiatives that generated direct income, but these will be minimised in the future due to the approach of minimal governance and lean operations - instead initiatives will live in other entities and agreements will be made for contributions from them to the Foundation on a case by case basis.

More details about money and the Foundation can be found here.

Social Impact Strategy / Theory of Change

The Enspiral Foundation exists to support the people and ventures of the Enspiral network to each achieve their social impact missions. The reason the Foundation exists is rooted in the belief that we can achieve more through mutual support, interdependence, and cooperation than as isolated individuals and companies. Much of the Foundation’s work operates on a ‘meta’ level, creating the conditions and systems with which people and entities driving direct social impact can be more effective.

Everything the Foundation does is oriented toward the loosely defined mission of Enspiral: “More people working on stuff that matters.”

Venture Stewards

  • Robert Guthrie
  • Ants Cabraal
  • Bart de Vries
  • Susan Basterfield

Enspiral Foundation Contribution

100% of income to the Foundation is re-invested in the network.