Tmura – The Israeli Public Service Venture Fund is a nonprofit organization (amuta) established in 2002 by the Israeli venture capital and high-tech communities. Tmura aims to support charitable activities in Israel, by sharing a portion of the wealth created by the country’s technology sector with education- and youth-related initiatives.
Tmura receives donations of equity stock and stock options from private (and, to a lesser extent, public) companies. Once a company’s shares are liquid, Tmura exercises the options and sells the shares, and allocates the proceeds of those donations to worthy non-profit causes in Israel, with a focus on education/youth-related organizations. While not its focus, Tmura also accepts cash donations.
Upon a successful exit, the donor company will be encouraged to select a grant recipient or recipients from Tmura’s list of recommended projects. This list is comprised of organizations which Tmura’s grants committee has evaluated and visited, and which we feel confident in recommending for your support.
Alternatively, if the donor company prefers, it may also direct the proceeds to a project of its choice. To be consistent with Tmura’s objectives and in order to ensure that the funds are directed to recognized and worthy organizations, we ask that should the donor company choose this route, the recipient still meet a few basic criteria. For details about these criteria or Tmura’s recommended projects, please see the Our Grantees and FAQ – Non-Profits sections of our website.
At the time of exit, we leave it to our discretion to allocate up to 10% of the proceeds from the liquidation event to help secure our ongoing budget and allow us to continue our work with the community. Tmura is actively engaged in fundraising from the venture capital community as well as other sources so that ultimately 100% of your proceeds will be directed to charity; however, we would like to leave this option open should there be a need.
Tmura’s Board will decide when to convert the options the Fund has been granted and when to sell the shares. Generally, these options and shares will be liquidated at the earliest possible opportunity, in order to provide cash allocations to the not-for-profit organizations.
Tmura’s participating companies enjoy improved employee pride, morale and commitment, an advantage in recruiting and retention, improved corporate culture, increased visibility, and longer term, a stronger community in which to do business. And the knowledge that they are helping to develop Israeli society and improve educational opportunities for its youth.
All Israeli (and Israel-related) high-technology companies are encouraged to support Tmura. Our focus is on early-stage companies with the potential for high capital appreciation, and we generally approach such companies either through their venture capital investors or directly. Other companies are invited to contact us as well.
Venture capital firms, professional service organizations, and others are encouraged to make cash grants to Tmura in order to help finance the Fund’s ongoing operating expenses. (These expenses are being kept to a minimum, thanks in part to our generous pro-bono service providers.) See a current list of our supporters.
The process is very simple. All you need to do is ask your board to approve a board resolution granting the options and send us a copy of the warrant. Israeli companies may also need to adopt a small amendment to your company’s articles of association. Please refer to the Resources page on this web site for a draft of the warrant, or contact us and we’ll be happy to help.
The number of shares varies with every company, but it is less than 1% of the outstanding shares (generally 0.5% – 1.0%). While no minimum number of shares is officially required, in order to make a significant impact upon a liquidity event, we request that you grant stock options a) equal to or greater than the number of options you would grant a senior engineer OR b) common stock valued at $50,000 (in the case of a very early-stage company) at the most recent investment price.
Yes. As a small company, this is a very effective tool that can be used to leverage their community involvement and participate in something bigger. There is no cash impact on the donor companies as a result of the grant, and the very minimal P&L impact is generally irrelevant at these early stages.
While companies will of course not be required to make additional contributions, several companies have in fact generously done so in order to minimize our dilution following subsequent financing rounds.
These stock options will be worthless. We hope you will consider making a grant from your next, more successful, venture as well.
If you have further questions regarding your contribution to Tmura, please contact Baruch Lipner at
03-607-4506, or email him at [email protected].
