The Evergreen Model | EHA Impact Ventures

The Power of an Evergreen Endowment

Creating Lasting Impact Through EHA Impact Ventures

Across Africa, women-led businesses receive less than 2% of startup funding — despite women building the majority of ventures improving health, nutrition, and livelihoods in their communities. EHA Impact Ventures exists to change that.

Our Evergreen Endowment is designed as a permanent engine of capital: your contribution is invested in vetted, women-led businesses, returned as those businesses grow, and reinvested in the next founder who needs it.

We are actively building the endowment toward long-term self-sufficiency — and the partners who invest now are the ones who make that possible. This document shows you how.

Why an Endowment Matters

EHA Impact Ventures has built a sustainable approach to this challenge through our Evergreen Endowment. Unlike traditional funding vehicles that deplete their resources over time, our endowment creates a permanent engine of capital. Every dollar contributed is invested in vetted, women-led ventures across Africa. When these businesses succeed and generate returns, that capital flows back into the endowment — ready to support the next generation of women entrepreneurs.

This structure means your contribution doesn’t just create impact once — it drives change. By establishing a self-sustaining pool of capital specifically dedicated to women entrepreneurs, we’re building infrastructure that addresses both immediate needs and long-term systemic challenges in the African business ecosystem.

Traditional grants fund a moment. Conventional funds return capital to investors — not to founders. The endowment structure is different by design: capital stays in the mission permanently, returning to fund the next founder rather than the next investor. For a donor who wants their giving to outlast them, it’s the most efficient structure in impact investing.

100% Deployment

Unlike traditional grants, we allocate our entire endowment toward our core mission: supporting women entrepreneurs.

Sustainable Returns

Endowment returns flow back into the endowment, creating a cycle that funds future investments.

Perpetual Impact

The endowment principle is protected, ensuring generations of women get funding and resources.

How Your Contribution Compounds Over Time

The true power of the EHA Impact Ventures Evergreen Endowment lies in its ability to create compounding impact. Rather than a one-time grant that is spent and gone, your investment in our fund becomes a permanent resource that fuels multiple cycles of business growth and community improvement.

This approach transforms traditional philanthropy into a sustainable engine for change.

This multiplier effect represents a fundamental shift in how philanthropic capital is put to work. Instead of making individual donations, you are helping build a lasting financial vehicle that will empower African women entrepreneurs forever.

Success Stories and Tangible Impact

Ananya Health: Maternal Care Revolution

EIV invested $275K via a SAFE note to help bring Ananya’s cervical cancer detection technology to market across Africa. The investment — deployed in stages in 2025 and early 2026 — provides the patient, founder-first capital that traditional investors wouldn’t offer at this stage. As Anu Parvatiyar, Co-founder, puts it:

“With EIV’s support and our unwavering commitment to expanding access to care, we’re moving closer to a future without cervical cancer.”

EIV projects Ananya’s exit in the 2028–2030 window — the first significant test of the endowment’s reinvestment flywheel.

Moppet: Nourishing the Next Generation

When Moppet needed capital to sustain and scale its affordable, nutrient-dense food products, EIV provided an $80K revenue-based convertible loan tailored to the business's realities rather than traditional investor expectations. As founder Roberta Edu explains:

At our lowest moment, when over 350 families risked losing their livelihoods, EIV’s support was more than funding—it was hope, dignity, and the push we needed to keep going.

Moppet begins repayment in 2027 — capital that will flow back into the endowment to fund the next founder.

400+Jobs Created

56%Female Workers

6Active Portfolio Companies

The Multiplier Effect

Projecting Your Impact

When you contribute to the EHA Impact Ventures Evergreen Endowment, your capital creates waves of impact that extend far beyond a traditional one-time donation. Through our sustainable investment model, each dollar you commit can support multiple businesses over time—creating a multiplier effect that amplifies your impact exponentially.

These projections reflect EHA Impact Ventures’ 2035 targets — the scale of impact we are building toward and the foundation your contribution helps us reach. They demonstrate how the evergreen model creates exponential growth in impact metrics over time. Because capital is continuously recycled, each additional year compounds the effect of your initial contribution without requiring new funds.

The Power of $5 Million

A $5 million contribution to our endowment can be reinvested 3–4 times over the next decade, supporting approximately 35 women-led ventures, creating an estimated 10,000 jobs, and improving health and livelihood outcomes for more than 3 million people across Africa.

Beyond these quantitative measures, your investment creates qualitative transformations that ripple throughout communities. When women entrepreneurs succeed, they typically reinvest 90% of their income in their families and communities—improving education, health, and economic outcomes for the next generation.

Comparative Advantage

Why the Evergreen Model Outperforms

Impact Metric	Traditional Grant	Conventional Fund	EIV Evergreen Endowment
Longevity of Capital	Depletes after 1 use	Returns to investors after 7–10 years	Perpetual, continuously recycled
Management Fees	10–15% of grant	2% annually + 20% of profits	0% — all capital goes to work
Sustainability Focus	Requires ongoing fundraising	Requires frequent new funds	Self-sustaining after initial capitalization

$13MEndowment TargetThe goal for full self-sufficiency

$3.2MCurrent Endowment25% of the way there

2027Repayments BeginPortfolio capital starts returning

2028–30Projected Exit WindowFirst capital returns to the endowment

Today the endowment stands at $3.2M. We are 25% of the way there, with an active portfolio, repayments beginning in 2027, and projected exits in the 2028–2030 window that will return capital for the first time. The flywheel is starting to turn. The partners who contribute now are the ones who determine how quickly it gets there.

“The partnership we have with EHA Impact Ventures has been incredible in helping MotherFood tackle malnutrition by supporting amazing entrepreneurs like Kudzayi Hove, Founder of Amayi Foods”

Chris Emergui

Global Partnerships at MotherFood International

Ready to Partner? Join Us in Building a Healthier, More Prosperous Africa

Your contribution to the EHA Impact Ventures Evergreen Endowment is more than a donation—it's an investment in Africa's future through women's entrepreneurship. Joining our partners helps create a sustainable engine supporting generations of women leaders solving community challenges.

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Evergreen Model