• High engagement - we will actively participate in helping organisations to succeed.
• Long term sustained support and investment, both financial and non-financial.
• Funding the general operations (core costs) of voluntary organisations as well as delivery of their services.
• Organisational capacity building, including funding charities to grow the scale of their operations.

• Defining clear, measurable social benefits.
• Rigorous evaluation and performance measurement.
• Holding organisations accountable for results and reward success.
• Sharing successes and failures openly

What else will Inspiring Scotland bring?

As well as following these principles, Inspiring Scotland has a different approach to other venture philanthropy organisations. The most significant difference is that it has grown from within the voluntary sector, led by an experienced and respected grant making trust; all other models of venture philanthropy have been developed outside the sector. Inspiring Scotland is unique in other ways:

• All the work will be around particular themes - we are tackling issues to change the social landscape. Work will be funded around these issues as opposed to funding work regardless of its focus.
• Each issue will be independently examined, giving a clear starting point of need and a picture of what is currently being delivered and where the gaps are. This allows us to strategically manage the portfolio of organisations we support.
• Our investors include government, giving a direct link between our work and future policy development.
• There is an open process for charities to develop proposals.
• As well as working to develop the capacity of organisations we invest in, capacity building will also take place during proposal development. This will support the development of a wider range of charities and also means we'll understand which of the charities are best placed to fully engage with the venture philanthropy approach as opposed to traditional grant making. This means we can be sure we're backing the right organisations and can have confidence in their delivery.
• The relationship with charities will be about collaborating and working with them, promoting their ownership of their work. We have high expectations of what can and will be delivered, but won't be taking control out of their hands.
• High quality evaluation has been built in from the start, working with Evaluation Support Scotland and using their expert advice. From the time funding is committed we will be measuring the individual and collective delivery of the charities funded.
• The length of investment in each charity will be 5-10 years. This is much longer than most other traditional philanthropy models and will allow significant, strategic work to be delivered.
• An 'Expert Group' will be set up for each issue to be tackled. Drawn from a range of backgrounds but all recognised as experts in their own areas, the strength of this group is their impartiality and breadth and depth of knowledge.
• We are close to government policy but not driven by it - we recognise that more can be achieved by working towards the same overall aim than funding work with no links to other initiatives.
• By building links with local authorities we'll also ensure maximum benefits at a local level.
• From day one we will actively plan with funded charities for the period beyond our investment, working to develop their sustainability. We want the relationship to be inter-dependent rather than co-dependent or dependent. A measure of our success is how well the charities continue to deliver once our support is over, and we will help organisations to achieve financial self-sufficiency as an "exit strategy".
• Inspiring Scotland will develop and grow as well - we'll be applying the same principles to ourselves as we are to the charities we back. It is as important for us to learn as it is for anyone else.