About Positive Ventures, LLC
About Joanna Messing, President and Founder
Joanna brings over ten years of experience in the fields of nonprofit sustainability, social enterprise development, venture philanthropy and micro-enterprise. She has held a variety of roles, from being a social entrepreneur herself to consulting and investing in social entrepreneurs. Joanna is the author and co-author of several publications and articles in the field of social enterprise and nonprofit financial sustainability.
Prior to launching Positive Ventures, Joanna was Associate Director of REDF (previously Roberts Enterprise Development Fund), a leading venture philanthropy fund in the Bay Area. She led REDF through a strategic planning process that is currently being implemented.
Previously she was Director of NESsT Consulting and Enterprise Development, where she led the business plan, startup and implementation of NESsT Consulting – an income generating venture for NESsT. NESsT Consulting provides consulting services in social enterprise development to clients in Eastern Europe and Latin America. Prior to this position she led the Central European office of the NESsT Venture Fund (NVF). The NESsT Venture Fund is a philanthropic investment fund providing financial and capacity-building support to a select portfolio of social enterprises owned and operated by civil society organizations in Central Europe and Latin America. All of the social enterprises in the NESsT Venture Fund portfolio are intended to generate revenues to help diversify the financing base and further the mission of the parent nonprofit organization. Through the NVF and NESsT Consulting Joanna provided capacity building and consulting to hundreds of social enterprises in over 16 countries.
Before coming to NESsT, Joanna worked in the field of social enterprise at Youth Industry , a nonprofit based in San Francisco, California that owns and operates businesses to train and employ homeless youth. At Youth Industry she was responsible for the business plan, start-up and first year of management of Nu2U2, a thrift store that is YI's fifth and largest business.
Joanna also has worked in the field of micro-enterprise and micro-finance. She worked as a Project Manager for Greater Holyoke Community Development Corporation, where she provided technical assistance to micro-entrepreneurs and started a youth entrepreneurship program for primarily Puerto Rican at-risk youth.
Ms. Messing holds an M.B.A. from the Isenberg School of Management, University of Massachusetts and a B.A. in Economics and Third World Studies from Oberlin College.