Halcyon, the Georgetown startup support organization, has begun raising an endowment fund to support initiatives aimed at developing young companies.
Halcyon President and CEO Dan Barker told me the Halcyon Legacy Campaign has already raised $3 million toward an initial $8 million goal. Halcyon formally announced fundraising efforts during its 10th anniversary event on Thursday.
Barker said the organization hopes to close on the $8 million endowment in the next three years, which is when Halcyon will begin to tap into the income it earns from the endowment's investments for capital deployment. Who will manage the endowment and how it will be invested isn't being disclosed publicly either, Barker said, and he declined to share the source of the initial funding.
The endowment will allow the organization to provide unrestricted capital to startups, largely in the form of stipends, as well as better support the financial well-being of the nonprofit more generally, without risking the donor-raised dollars it brings in to support similar efforts.
"It will allow us to try out new things, to build new programs that may be on the forefront of a topic that funders haven't necessarily coalesced around," Barker said. "Then, of course, it also provides some risk mitigation if there's an unexpected shock or downturn. It allows us to have that backstop that will ensure that we're financially healthy."
Kate Goodall and Sachiko Kuno founded Halcyon in 2014 as a part of the S&R Foundation; it was established as an independent nonprofit in 2017. The organization had $4.6 million in revenue in 2023; $3.1 million of that came from grants and contributions. It had $4.79 million in expenses that year and posted a $116,146 deficit.
More than 500 entrepreneurs across about 350 startups have walked through the doors of the Halcyon House on Prospect Street NW to participate in one of the organization's accelerator or fellowship programs. The organization plans to focus more on backing climate, health and equity tech startups in the months and years to come as opposed to its previous backing of startups working in various domains.
"This is really a coalescing of a lot of things, but the anniversary was really an opportunity to catalyze the core around the work that we've done," Barker said.
The launch of the endowment follows the spinoff this year of Halcyon Venture Partners, which is actively raising a $50 million fund to use for startup investment. The launch of HVP saw Goodall depart her role as CEO to co-lead the venture group as a managing partner alongside Dahna Goldstein, previously the chief investment officer at Halcyon.
Barker assumed his role as CEO on Jan. 1 after previously being the managing director of Halcyon's incubator program since early 2022. He was a member of the Business Journal's 2024 40 Under 40 class.
