Launch Event - IVN's New Social Venture Program
On July 5, 2010, IVN held a launch event in celebration of its new Social Venture Program, a comprehensive program of mentoring, capacity building and financial support, aimed at developing self-sustaining social ventures through the application of income generating models and business practices. The core of the Program is based on mentoring by members of the IVN network who exercise true hands-on venture philanthropy. Our mentors are leading business entrepreneurs in Israel and the US with many years of business, strategic, marketing, funding, technical, and financial experience.
To read more about the Program, click here.
Shuki Ehrlich, Partner at Giza Venture Capital and IVN Board Member, and his wife Rachel generously opened their home for the event which was attended by over 90 business executives, friends and partners. The festive event was themed: "Reflections on Influence and Impact on Israeli Society". Shuki introduced the speakers, stressing "social change will come through active volunteerism".
We were honored to have, as our keynote speaker, the industrialist, philanthropist and Israel Prize Laureate Dov Lautman.
Dov spoke passionately about his philanthropic work, especially in the field of education, and about the rapidly growing gaps in Israeli society. Dov asked everyone to become more involved: "Even if you believe that you have no extra time in your life, you can always find a couple of hours a week to help better Israeli society."
Additional speakers who spoke about influencing Israeli society from their perspective were Benny Levin, Chairman of dbMotion and IVN Vice Chairman; Noha Bader, a doctoral candidate at Haifa University and founder of an IVN supported social business; Shai Beilis, Managing Partner of Formula Ventures and IVN Mentor and Operating Committee Member; and Daphna Murvitz, IVN's Executive Director.
Benny introduced IVN's new Social Venture Program and emphasized the importance of looking inwards rather than outwards for support and how it is the responsibility of Israel's private sector to "pick up the gauntlet".
Noha thanked IVN for its amazing, empowering support and offered a special thanks to her dedicated IVN Mentor, Rachel Ofer, a Management & Human Resources Consultant with over 30 years of experience in her field. Noha talked about her initiative with Tel Hai College, a well respected academic institution located in the Upper Galilee and how together they forged a plan. In 2005, Noha established Maghar College, a satellite of Tel Hai College located in her home town of Maghar - an Arab town in the north of Israel with a population of approximately 20,000 and a diverse religious makeup of Druze, Christians, and Muslims. To read more about Noha and her unique initiative, click here.
Speaking about his role as an IVN mentor and the extreme satisfaction he derived from it was Shai Beilis. Shai talked about his time as a mentor for IVN funded entrepreneurs Bezalel Cohen & Yechezkel Rosenblum and their Kemach Fund initiative which provides support for those in the Haredi population seeking to enter the work force. "The experience was incredibly rewarding. I found myself using all of my skills and experience from the business world to develop and expand this critical initiative." One and a half years after launching the program, the Kemach Fund has been able to provide 3,500 scholarships to members of the Haredi population seeking a secular education.
Daphna completed the evening with a call for members to join the IVN network and a guarantee of hands-on involvement."IVN enables its members to become actively engaged by contributing their management expertise to IVN's initiatives and having a direct impact on bridging the gaps in Israeli society."
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