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By Susan Mackenzie
Tanzania-based Flying Medical Services supports 1.5 million people, mostly in the Serengeti region, with daily health clinics and emergency medical services. In 2000 the charity, which relies heavily on its two Cessnas to transport both medical personnel and patients, was devastated when one of its planes was lost in a crash. Michiel de Haan first learned of the organisation while watching news of the plane crash. Moved by the tragedy, he wanted to help and, using mostly his own money, financed a new plane for the medical team.
Being able to see the positive impact of his contribution motivated de Haan to seek out other opportunities to support worthy causes. Today, he focuses his philanthropy on social enterprise projects in Africa, the continent he regards as ‘suffering the greatest challenges from globalisation’, as he believes that ‘social entrepreneurs will be the drivers of wealth creation in developing countries’.
De Haan’s beneficiaries typically are microcredit-supported initiatives that need ‘medium-term capital’ to grow to the next stage in their development, which he aids with both financial and non-financial support. In addition to his personal social investments, de Haan also is a strategic advisor to SOVEC, a venture philanthropy group that invests medium-term capital in social enterprise projects in Africa; as well as an investor in net4kids. a Netherlands-based foundation aiding disadvantaged children around the world. In evaluating potential investments, de Haan applies four key criteria, based largely on his substantial venture capital experience (he is founder of Atlas Venture and former Chairman of EVCA):
- Impact: The initiative will have an impact on economic development, which leads to impacts on social development;
- Transparency: There is transparency for financial providers, from day one of the investment;
- Added value: He can add value to the project, with both financial and non-financial support; and
- People: He knows personally the key individuals concerned with the project, both internally and externally; building relationships of mutual trust is key.
Yet above all, to be truly motivated he must ‘enjoy the experience’. For instance, he spends time in Tanzania with Flying Medical Service, talking to the pilots and travelling with them to pick up patients. Ultimately, what motivates de Haan’s philanthropy is seeing the impact of his involvement, and being confident that he is ‘contributing to a better world’.
This article first appeared in EVPA NEWS, Issue 3, Summer 2005.
