pioneering ventures without similar business models
to follow, there is always a degree of uncertainty
about the sustainability of a new idea. The ISIS
businesses are now in their 13th year and have
provided millions in recurrent funding to the ISIS
Foundation, which provides service to around
11,000 people in extreme poverty in Uganda and
Nepal a year, and has provided direct and indirect
support since inception to around 100,000 people
in need.
The Bermuda and Australian-based venture was
started by Exel and friends in 1997, who realized
that business types and non-profit types needed to
recognize that they were different – and that if they
combined forces with each playing to their own
strengths, they could together change the world.
An idea was formed over many years: what if
a purely commercial business was set up for the
sole purpose of funding a non-profit foundation?
After initial suspicions from business colleagues
that the business was purely being set up for tax
reasons, as well as scepticism from non-profit
organizations who didn’t believe anyone would
run a business purely for social outcomes and so
viewed her business model as having a hidden
agenda, Exel proved that by realizing unique
strengths of each business model, much good
could be achieved.
“One of the biggest challenges was to
overcome the very negative attitudes that often
exist between the two worlds of non-profit and
commerce,” says Exel. “Business people often
times view non-profit people as incapable of
handling money properly as well as not accounting
for their spend in a way that makes sense to big
business. Corporations, on the other hand, can
be viewed by non-profit organizations as ‘evil
capitalists’ who don’t understand development
work in complex social environments, especially
within the developing world.”
Exel saw the potential for these two opposing
disciplines to work together for good, and now
has both business and non-profit teams working
in the office on a daily basis, each with a separate
agenda but a common cause.
The ISIS businesses are the financial ‘engine’
of the venture and has expanded to include a
Bermuda law firm, a Bermuda fund administration
business, and an Australian corporate finance and
placement business. The group has funded over
US$3 million for The ISIS Foundation and put to
work a further US$7 million received from partner
donors since inception.
The ISIS Foundation assists in breaking the
cycle of poverty in disadvantaged communities
in Nepal and Uganda, with a focus on providing
health, education and opportunity for children
and their families.
They seek to focus on projects that are
remote, not currently popular, or less likely to be
funded by large international donor organizations,
therefore filling the gaps left behind by the
changes and latest global trends in international
development. Of the many achievements that
ISIS has delivered on the ground, here is an
example: a new maternity ward and a new and
expanded neonatal intensive care unit (NICU)
have been built, funded and supported in a rural
bush hospital in Uganda which has built capacity
to provide effective care for newborn babies
and mothers, reducing the infant mortality rate.
ISIS also provides training and capacity building
for local staff from expert volunteers. The staff
also have access to a medical advisory service
over email and are also linked to 10 hospitals