ImpactAlpha, February 6—The philanthropic arm of Microsoft, Microsoft Philanthropies, has made a $1 million investment in non-profit tech marketplace TechSoup through its fundraising campaign on SVX.US. The commitment brings TechSoup to $1.1 million towards a $11.5 million fundraising goal on SVX.US and is a significant sum for a campaign meant to democratize impact investing.
TechSoup is a marketplace that helps charities and non-profits affordably secure hardware and software technologies they need to run their organizations. It helped Toronto-based SVX launch its U.S.-based impact investing platform last year with a direct public offering for $11.5 million in debt. The campaign includes three different term structures and one of them, the Community Capital Note, allows anyone to invest as little as $50 to the organization for a 2% return.
Prior to Microsoft Philanthropies’ investment, TechSoup had raised $87,000 since launching on SVX.US in November. The organization separately secured a $4 million loan from Non-profit Finance Fund in January.
