GreenLight Fund: new Philly social entrepreneurship funding firm is awarded $2 million from federal government

There’s a new socially-minded funding firm in town.

The GreenLight Fund, founded in Boston in 2004 to support nonprofits, quietly expanded to Philadelphia this January. It was just awarded $2 million from the federal government’s Corporation for National and Community Service, the agency that manages programs like AmeriCorps, according to a press release [PDF].

GreenLight Fund takes “a venture capital approach” to funding nonprofits, says co-founder John Simon, referencing how it chooses its recipients not that it expects a return on investment necessarily.

It has raised $4 million, including the government funds, to support social entrepreneurship in its three locations. About one-third of these funds will go toward local efforts here, and the rest of it will be put toward the also fairly new GreenLight Fund in San Francisco and the original in Boston.

Led locally by executive director Matt Joyce, GreenLight Fund is currently searching for its first Philadelphia nonprofit to support and will open an application process later this summer or early this fall. Joyce previously co-founded Philly Fellows, a nonprofit fellowship program. GreenLight Fund’s Philly offices are at 15th and Cherry.

Updated on 8/6/12 10:05 a.m.: GreenLight Fund is not looking to fund any Philly-area nonprofits. Instead, it’s looking to bring nonprofits to the region.