What do venture philanthropy organisations seek in social enterprises?

Venture philanthropy organisations (VPOs) help social enterprises (SEs) to achieve social impact and economic sustainability. This paper aims at explaining why VPOs invest in SEs and how they select their investments. It is based on the case study of an international VPO: danone.communities. Our findings show that VPOs provide SEs with financial and nonfinancial support to tackle social challenges. In return, they acquire knowledge and improve their reputation. We discuss three main factors that VPOs seek when selecting their investments in SEs: the social value proposition of the SE, key resources and processes of both SE and VPO, and the synergies between them. Finally, we propose some criteria to assess such partnerships.