The elea Way - Preview

elea’s FOUNDATION AND OPER ATING MODEL

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create ambitious, yet realistic, scenarios for the future in order to establish leadership priorities and better understand constraints. 11 One such con- straint was the fact that our funding principle for direct and indirect costs did not allow for building any reserves that were necessary to absorb risks, extend the lives of our winning investments, or finance strategic initia- tives. To address this, we contacted some of our most loyal philanthropic investors and invited them to join an exclusive “Comit é de Patronage.” We asked them for a significant capital contribution that could be used to strengthen elea’s balance-sheet capacity, with objectives such as funding investments in elea’s organizational strength (e.g., talent program), its insti- tutional capabilities (e.g., knowledge base), or its risk absorption capacity (e.g., setting up an emergency funding facility in response to the Global Covid-19 Crisis). With this access to both investment-related philanthropic capital and free equity, and with a solid perspective for financial returns above cost at a number of our most successful investments after exit, elea will be sustainably funded for the foreseeable future. 3 .2.3 Professional development In 2019, elea launched an annual talent program with the goal of attracting young professionals who have an appetite to embark on a career in philan- thropic impact investing. The pilot effort for this initiative was designed as a two-year structured development journey, either targeting people between their bachelor’s and master’s studies and/or at the start of their professional careers. We positioned ourselves next to global consulting companies and financial services firms at recruiting events with selected universities, and we were overwhelmed by the success. Over 70 students showed interest, many of whom have excellent qualifications. We ended up hiring four junior talents, sometimes in a head-on competition with high-profile alter- native employers. This experience showed us that our offering of highly demanding professional work in a competitive environment with a clearly meaningful purpose met an enthusiastic response. Since the outset, the elea Professional Development Program (ePDP) has been an important pillar of our work, which, in its significance, goes far beyond just “administrative resources.” The objective was to create and accumulate expertise and know-how, share experiences, and build an institutional memory in order to be able to become a learning