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TechSoup Completes Unique Capital Campaign, Unveils Scott Grant
Public Offering Fueling TechSoup’s $11.5 Million Goal

TechSoup has completed its hybrid $11.5 million capital campaign, a combination of multiple revenue sources that includes a first of its kind direct public offering (DPO). The organization will pair that money with a newly announced $16 million grant from MacKenzie Scott and Dan Jewett.

The San Francisco, Calif.-based TechSoup has provided technology solutions, digital platforms, and in-person experiences for nearly 30 years. TechSoup also manages the only global philanthropy program that brings together more than 825 corporations and foundations to provide technology donations to nonprofits across the globe.

TechSoup’s data and validation services enable companies, foundations, and governments to connect their philanthropic resources with vetted nonprofits. TechSoup has reached more than 1.3 million nonprofits and facilitated distribution of technology products and grants valued at more than $16 billion.

TechSoup completed the 3-year, $11.5 million capital campaign this past September. It included raising $7.5 million through loans, recoverable grants and donations, and $4 million through the DPO of debt securities. The DPO structure enabled all members of TechSoup’s community to make an impact investment, not just institutional funders. Both accredited and non-accredited individual investors and smaller organizations could participate with investment minimums of $50.

The capital campaign was launched in 2018 to finance the scaling of five strategic initiatives and to increase TechSoup’s ability to adapt services to meet new needs and reach additional nonprofits. With the $11.5 million in funding, TechSoup will be able to expand its capacity to deliver needed resources, in addition to increasing the number of nonprofits support, according to an announcement from the organization.

“The capital campaign, and in particular the DPO, embodies our belief that TechSoup’s stakeholders come from a range of economic backgrounds but share a common belief in the importance of a strong infrastructural backbone for civil society,” said TechSoup CEO Rebecca Masisak. “This was more than just an investment — it was an opportunity to invest side-by-side with TechSoup and civil society organizations everywhere to build a better world.”

TechSoup received the $16 million grant from MacKenzie Scott and Dan Jewett back in June to support an array of programs that will help get resources into the hands of people and organizations that need it most. “People struggling against inequities deserve center stage in stories about change they are creating,” Scott wrote in announcing the couple’s latest round of giving to 286 organizations. “This is equally — perhaps especially — true when their work is funded by wealth. Any wealth is a product of a collective effort that included them. The social structures that inflate wealth present obstacles to them. And despite those obstacles, they are providing solutions that benefit us all.”

According to Masisak, “We are so grateful for the support that our investors and MacKenzie Scott and Dan Jewett have provided us. Their generosity supports building the infrastructure for civil society — connecting organizations to one another, to resources, and accelerating the use of digital solutions to address complex issues.”

The support from Scott and Jewett is unrestricted and will be used as general operating support for TechSoup’s digital programs and NGOsource, including building the infrastructure to accelerate the useful movement of grants and resources into the hands of organizations. “This gift, given with trust for the value of the work we do, affirms that we are on the right track, and it re-energizes our motivation to innovate new solutions for an ever-changing planet,” said Masisak.