Amy Mills, Executive Director, Emancipet and Rebecca Powers, Executive Director, Innovation+

2. Our mission:
• Matching human and financial capital with
proven social innovation to change our world.

3. Who we are:
• Two-year old social venture philanthropy
501(c)(3)
• Business professionals with skills to leverage
on behalf of chosen non-profits
• Coach/catalyst/cheerleader
• Funding advisor

4. Who we are NOT:
• Traditional funding source

5. What we look for:
• Non-profits with following traits:
– Established, not a start-up
– Solving huge social issue innovatively
– Potential for growth regionally/nationally
– Proven results
– Entrepreneurial leadership

6. What we do:
• Help non-profits build capacity as they scale their
programs
– Invest human/financial capital over 3 – 5 years
– Assist with organizational capacity assessment to
understand ‘gaps’
– Assist with refining growth plan
– Connect with necessary resources
• Human
• Financial
• Provide small, strategic grants to help catalyze
growth

7. How we choose investees:
• Competitive application process:
– Multi-step
– Open to any 501(c)(3) that meets our criteria
– Annual selection cycle: November – April
– Investment Selection Committee, comprised of
Partners (investors), performs due diligence

8. Why Emancipet?
• Earned-revenue business model
• Innovative idea
• Reaching inflection point in replication plan
• Entrepreneurial leadership

9. Who We Are
• Mission: Make spay/neuter and preventive
vet care affordable and accessible to everyone
• History: Founded in 1999 as a mobile, added
stationary clinic in 2005, second mobile in
2011
• Impact: performed over 160,000 surgeries in
Central Texas
• Approach: Building relationships with pet
owners, social change, neighborhood based
outreach
• Claim to fame: Part of the team of
organizations that made Austin a no-kill City

10. Our Theory of Change (in a nutshell)
• Euthanasia in shelters is the number one
cause of preventable death of dogs and
cats in the U.S. (4 million per year)
• The primary reason for animals in shelters
is accidental litters
• The vast majority of pet owners want to
spay their pets but cannot afford market
rates
• Low cost spay/neuter, made
accessible, can end the unnecessary

11. So, what’s your
expansion
strategy?

12. Expansion Strategy
• Branch structure for clinic replication
• Central Office in Austin – sharing services to
reduce costs, increase quality
• Branches have earned revenue from
spay/neuter and fees for service – at
scale, they earn enough to pay their “fair
share” for the shared services at the central
office
• Need to learn: time to scale, impact of
population size on revenues

13. Assessing our own Readiness:
What we Wanted
• Some unrestricted cash in reserve
• A sustainable funding model
• Professional staff ready to grow
• Board in “start up” mode
• Stable programs at home
• A trusted funder for the first expansion site

14. The Last 12 Months
• Staffing up: Added a
COO, CAO, Accountant
• Changed staffing structure and roles
• Solidified processes and procedures
• Secured funding for first clinic
• Invested in Brand Re-fresh
• Invested in new Web Site, phone system

15. The Next 12 Months
• Transition board structure to ensure
adequate volunteer leadership
• Open a new clinic in Bell County
• Launch new fundraising plan to support
new structure and secure growth capital
• Determine location for next new clinic
• Launch training & mentoring program

16. What’s been the
best and worst
things about the
process so far?

17. The Joys
• Realizing you are going to be able to help
• Growing gives you unexpected influence
to make other changes
• Validation for your cause – makes you feel
like the universe is on your side!
• Getting new team members that are fired
up about the growth

18. The Challenges
• The balance between energized and terrified
• Knowing where to invest and when
• Giving up some control
• Keeping all the stakeholders engaged, and
finding ways to include everyone’s input
along the way- feels like building the plane in
mid-air
• Personally, understanding what my role
is, and how to stay in the right place to do it

19. Questions?

20. Contact Info:
Amy Mills, CEO Emancipet
@AMstation
Amy.mills@emancipet.org