The European venture philanthropy sector is growing faster than expected, based on new figures that show more than €1.04bn has now been invested in social organisations.

The European Venture Philanthropy Association’s (EVPA) first comprehensive survey of  European Venture Philanthropy was released at its 7^th annual conference last week attended by 400 sector leaders.

Serge Raicher, chairman of EVPA, says he was ‘wowed’ by the level of investment: “Venture Philanthropy is growing quicker than we expected and this is further evident from the growth in our membership over the last few years.”

Around 20% of the €1.04bn figure represents the value of hands-on non-financial support, one of the defining features of venture philanthropy.

To mark what has been called a ‘coming of age of venture philanthropy in Europe’ EVPA also issued a principles-based Code of Conduct that will be mandatory for all EVPA's full and VP investing members and their employees.

The aim of this Code of Conduct is to “develop the highest professional standards for the EVPA community where members can learn from each other in an atmosphere of transparency, humility and mutual respect”. Members and investees are urged to report members who fail to meet these standards to the EVPA board. Raicher says EVPA would be prepared to take action against members severely breaching the code but said he felt it was an unlikely scenario as “members were working together to develop best practice.”

Anne Holm Rannaleet, chair of the guidelines taskforce and EVPA Board member, said: "Venture Philanthropy is a young industry which is rapidly building critical mass. As Venture Philanthropy continues to grow, EVPA's industry-building role becomes increasingly important, thus calling for the development of best-practice training and guidelines. EVPA members are expected to develop and uphold the highest standards of practice in their everyday pursuit of societal impact.”

The figures based on a survey of 50 EVPA members showed 47% committed less than €10m in funding, while 17% had committed more than €100m. They also reveal that investment criteria is focussed on societal returns and when financial returns are earned, 68% of organisations reinvest them.

The survey also shows that VP organisations want to invest in young organisations and start ups. Raicher says this reflects the high risk approach venture philanthropists are prepared to take in achieving step change and the entrepreneurial spirit that is more buoyant in the first years of an organisation.

He says venture philanthropy attracts a diverse range of investors including HNWI, asset managers and foundations, with the only commonality being an entrepreneurial approach and a vision to making a difference.

The difficult economic climate that has engulfed Europe is no grounds for pessimism for venture philanthropy says Raicher: “Rather the difficult fundraising environment is making organisations focus on creating an even more compelling case for investors and focuses them on the numbers and better management.”

On both initiatives Raicher concludes: "Venture philanthropy has grown from being a nascent phenomenon to a proven model that increases societal impact.”

A more in-depth analysis of the survey will be available in early 2012 showing a country by country breakdown and other benchmarking data and will be available from the EVPA site.

The study was conducted by EVPA's Knowledge Centre and will be repeated on an annual basis.