VPP | AALEAD: Investment Summary

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AALEAD: Investment Summary

Asian American Lead

Fact Sheet | Leadership | Investment Summary | Impact Summary »

Please note: this Investment Summary represents VPP's perspective at the time of the investment agreement, October, 2004.

In October, 2004, VPP entered into a continuedinvestment partnership with the Asian American Leadership, Empowerment, and Development for Youth and Families (AALEAD), a young and impressive organization that provides academic enrichment, mentoring, and family strengthening services to Asian refugee families in the Columbia Heights/Mount Pleasant area of Washington, DC. These refugees are survivors of war, famine and severe discrimination who have resettled in a difficult urban environment.

This investment is a departure for VPP in that this organization is still in the early stages of its development, and we are co-investing with the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation (EMCF). EMCF has an investment philosophy that is similar to VPP's, is a national leader in working with youth organizations, and is particularly known for its focus on outcomes and its efforts to increase the effectiveness of grantmaking. Through this investment in AALEAD, VPP and EMCF hope to learn how to best support early-stage organizations that appear to have great potential. Through this co-investment by EMCF and VPP, we hope to develop a model for other co-investment relationships and increase the amount of capital and non-financial support for community-based organizations here in the National Capital region.

VPP and EMCF first invested in AALEAD in October of 2004 with support to increase its benefit to children, to position it for greater sustainability, and to prepare it for more significant investment from funders in the future. AALEAD is now at a critical juncture in determining its growth strategy for the future—facing challenging questions regarding its target population, program delivery, and financing. VPP and EMCF's continued investment partnership with AALEAD will provide the financial resources and strategic assistance necessary to support the organization as it navigates through this next phase of its organizational growth—better clarifying AALEAD's aspirations and strategy for growth —and ultimately having a greater impact on the Asian youth and families of this region.

The investment partnership with AALEAD represents a combined total investment of up to $700,000 and strategic assistance commencing in October of this year. VPP will provide up to $250,000 to support business planning as well as selected elements of strategy implementation, while EMCF will provide up to $450,000 to underwrite a significant portion of AALEAD's organizational development. This brings VPP's investment in AALEAD up to $425,000 as the pre-planning investment was $225,000.

OPPORTUNITY
This investment is providing funding and non-financial support to help grow and strengthen AALEAD to increase its benefit to children, to position it for greater sustainability, and to prepare it for more significant investment from funders in the future.

INVESTMENT RATIONALE
Key factors that provide the basis for a co-investment in AALEAD include:

Leadership – Sandy Dang is a young, dynamic leader that has moved Asian American LEAD from formation to serving 150 families annually in six years. She is deliberate about program quality, and is open to advice and change that will improve outcomes for youth. Sandy’s determined, focused style has allowed AALEAD to perform well against the milestones that were set for the first investment period. While Sandy has faced challenges transitioning as the sole founder/CEO to integrating new talent into the mix, she has grown and matured as a leader.
Commitment to Outcomes – Starting at the top, AALEAD has a solid commitment to quality programming and evaluation. They have made their work on outcomes a priority for the organization, dedicating internal resources, forming an advisory committee, and training program staff to begin a process to ensure organizational accountability around outcomes for youth. The EMCF identified this commitment early on in their due diligence work and noted “we were impressed with the intensity of AALEAD’s service model, the quality of its executive director, and the organization’s commitment to systematically track performance outcomes and build its evaluation capacity. Though AALEAD is quite small, we believed the organization had significant promise to deliver effective outcomes for Vietnamese youth.”
Filling a critical need - With a 48% population increase in just 10 years, the Asian Pacific American population is the second fastest growing immigrant population in the United States. The Washington-Baltimore region is no exception. More than 450,000 Asian Pacific Americans live in the Washington-Baltimore region, making it the fifth largest Asian Pacific American population of any metropolitan area. AALEAD aspires to act as a stabilizing force for Asian American refugees and immigrants in the region, and help them integrate into American society while preserving their ethnic identity.

USE OF FUNDS
A VPP/EMCF continued partnership will provide financial resources to:
1) Fund a planning process;
2) Provide continued capacity support; and
3) Fund key elements of strategy implementation.

Financial Commitment
▪ VPP: VPP’s financial investment will be used to fund a focused planning effort that engages the leadership of the organization in a process that helps them define their strategy for the future and provides additional follow-on support to begin strategy implementation.

▪ EMCF: The EMCF investment will provide the operational support AALEAD needs to continue its organizational capacity building efforts, as well as funds to begin implementing its growth plan for the future.