Aligning Nonprofit Mission with Venture Capital - Yigal Kerszenbaum, Managing Partner of JFFVentures

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In this episode of the Investing in Impact podcast, I sit down with Yigal Kerszenbaum, Managing Partner at JFFVentures, to explore how a mission driven investment fund partners with a national nonprofit to expand access, skills, and quality jobs for working adults.

Yigal shares his immigrant journey and why it fuels his commitment to opportunity creation.

The conversation covers the structure that aligns JFF’s nonprofit mission with a return driven venture fund, the rise of AI in the workforce, and concrete portfolio examples that move people from learning to earning.

Jobs for the Future is a forty year old national nonprofit focused at the intersection of education and work. Its North Star is to help tens of millions of adults transition into quality jobs. The organization has deep on the ground expertise, with hundreds of practitioners working across all fifty states and strong relationships with community colleges, employers, and public agencies.

JFFVentures is the investment arm aligned to that mission. It operates as a traditional venture capital fund with an impact thesis, backing founders who build products that increase economic mobility for adults earning less than fifty thousand dollars per year. The fund invests in pre seed and seed rounds, typically with an initial check near five hundred thousand dollars and reserves for follow on.

Key takeaways

• JFF is a forty year old nonprofit with deep networks in education and workforce, JFFVentures is its aligned venture fund
• The fund backs products that move adults from learning to earning, with a focus on those earning under fifty thousand dollars per year
• Portfolio companies like Pace AI, Manifest, and Major League Hacking show the thesis in action
• AI can both disrupt and enable, the opportunity is to use it to widen access, lower training costs, and improve job performance
• The structure shares financial upside with the nonprofit, reinforcing the mission as companies scale

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