Draft:Douglas Miller (philanthropist)

Douglas L. Miller is an American businessman and philanthropist who expanded the concept of venture philanthropy from the United States into Europe, Asia, South & Central America and Africa.

Miller is the cofounder of four international venture philanthropy membership organizations: Impact Europe (formerly European Venture Philanthropy Association), Asian Venture Philanthropy Network (AVPN), Latimpacto and African Venture Philanthropy Alliance (AVPA). Born in the United States, Miller and his wife Audrey lived with their two children in Weybridge in the United Kingdom for 30 years.

Early Life

Miller was born in Missouri|Joplin, Missouri. Following the loss of his father when Miller was 9 years old, his mother Virginia Miller relocated the family to Kansas|Pittsburg, Kansas where she taught elementary school for 20 years and focused her attention on giving back to society, providing a role model for her children. In her honor Miller and his sister Judith L. Miller established the Virginia F. Miller Scholarship at Pittsburg State University in 1986 to support students in the School of Education.

Undergraduate Education

Miller attended Pittsburg State University in Pittsburg, Kansas the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas for his undergraduate education and graduated with honors in 1966, earning a dual degree in Economics and International Relations. He was an active participant in Sigma Alpha|Pi Sigma Alpha, the National Political Science Honor Society.

Military Service

In 1966 Miller’s plans to serve with the Corps|Peace Corps in French West Africa were disrupted when he was drafted into the States Army|U.S. Army, training from 1966-1967 and serving in the War|Vietnam War from 1968 until 1969.

His basic and advanced infantry training was at Fort Jackson, South Carolina. Choosing to become an officer, Miller extended his commitment to a third year and attended Officer Candidate Infantry training at Fort Benning, Georgia where he graduated in the top 10% of his class, earning him the right to choose his assignment. He chose to attend training at Fort Bragg (now Fort Liberty) in North Carolina, where he received Special Forces training and thereafter proceeded to Airborne school, Jungle school, Pathfinder school and Recondo school.

In Vietnam Miller served in a long-range reconnaissance unit for the first 9 months where he won a number of combat awards including a Bronze Star for valor, two Heart|Purple Hearts, an Air Medal and other lesser medals. His last three months were as a senior advisor in a remote camp of roughly 100 local soldiers protecting villages in North Central Vietnam. He was awarded a second Bronze Star Medal for this action. He returned to the United States in May 1969 as a First Lieutenant. He was inducted to the Infantry Officer Candidate School Hall of Fame in 2019 to honor both his military and philanthropic endeavors, a distinction received by less than one half percent of graduates.

Post-Military Education

Following his military career, Miller entered graduate school to study Finance at the University of Kansas School of Business. He held the office of Class President of the Business School and was inducted into Beta Gamma Sigma in 1970. In 1971 he received his MBA with honors. During graduate school Miller’s previous war experience combined with a strong drive toward social justice compelled him to become an avid anti-Vietnam War protester and a strong supporter of both racial and gender equity. In 2014 he received an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree from the University of Warwick .

Business Career

Miller intentionally planned his career around utilizing his business skills to gather wealth so that he could devote the bulk of his later efforts to philanthropy.

After obtaining his MBA, Miller began a 19-year career working for Continental Bank, which was the largest bank in Chicago at that time. He held senior leadership positions in commercial banking, real estate workouts, international leasing, investment banking and finally to President of the venture capital division of Continental Bank, while raising his family in London, England.

In 1990 Miller left Continental Bank and formed his own company, International Private Equity Limited (IPEL). Headquartered in London, IPEL worked internationally doing fundraising for venture capital and buyout groups headquartered in the UK, Germany, France, Poland, Italy, Israel, Asia and the United States. After leading IPEL for 18 years and helping raise capital for 25 funds, Miller was named one of the top 50 professionals in the private equity market by Private Equity International in London.

Philanthropy - Early Involvement

Miller has always felt a strong pull to help others. In 1969 he led his army unit in building a two-room schoolhouse for Vietnamese children in the nearby village of Cat Tai. On the night following the school’s opening dedication, the Viet Cong destroyed the school. Then approximately 20 years later with approval from the Vietnamese government, Miller worked with the Swiss Charity Microprojects of Vietnam to rebuild the school, this time with six classrooms.

Miller’s early philanthropy efforts were heavily influenced by E. F. Schumacher and his company Practical Action (formerly Intermediate Technology Group.) This work involved aiding rural economic development including micro-hydro power, wind energy, fuel efficiency and other projects.

Philanthropy - Main Career

In 2002 Miller led a bicycle trek through Vietnam to raise money for the UK-headquartered NGO Mines Advisory Group, a Nobel Peace Prize recipient. The trekking group consisted of 27 private equity professionals from nine different countries. During the trip, discussions of using the venture philanthropy model to improve effectiveness in the philanthropy sector became the seminal ideas that led to formation of a European membership network launched in 2005, Impact Europe (formerly European Venture Philanthropy Association - EVPA). Impact Europe was launched with Miller as chairman and primary funder along with four other private equity professionals from France (Serge Raicher), the Netherlands (Michiel de Haan), Italy (Luciano Balbo) and the UK (Stephen Dawson). EVPA’s aim was to bring more financial, intellectual and human capital to both charity and social enterprise in a model which would eventually be replicated on three other continents. Miller remained Chairman of EVPA for the first four years before moving on to repeat the process in Asia with the Asian Venture Philanthropy Network (AVPN) in 2010, in Latin America with Latimpacto in 2022 and in Africa with African Venture Philanthropy Alliance in ____.

As of January 2023 the four networks combined have over 1200 members from 70 countries and a staff of approximately 110 people working at headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, Singapore, Nairobi, Kenya and Bogota, Columbia. The networks are supported by membership fees, income from events and projects along with donations from foundations, family offices, corporations and a few government-related organizations in the United States, the European Union and Singapore. Miller and Naina Subberwal Batra discuss the future of their venture philanthropy organizations in this article from Alliance magazine.

Miller retired as Chairman of AVPN in 2017. Since then Miller’s teams created two more sister membership organizations, the African Venture Philanthropy Alliance (AVPA) in Africa (2017) and Latimpacto in Latin America (2019), culminating in a total of four networks on four separate continents.

The purpose of the four sister networks is to facilitate donation of financial, intellectual and human capital from many global donors to help social purpose organizations extend their work in the most efficient, effective and duplicable way. Other missions for these networks are to promote synergies, collaboration and best practices.

Miller’s reflections on the inspiration and goals of his venture philanthropy journey can be read in this article on the AVPN web site.

Additional Venture Philanthropy Funds

In addition to the above venture philanthropy networks, Miller has been a catalyst and provided seed fund for venture philanthropy funds in the following countries:

UK: Impetus - Founder Funder and Senior Non-Executive Director

Estonia: The Good Deed Impact Fund, Estonia’s first venture philanthropy organization. Miller and Impact Europe have been instrumental in supporting this impact fund since 2005.

Poland: Valores

Japan: Social Investment Partners

Hong Kong: Social Impact Partners

Bosnia and Herzegovina: Fondacija Mozaik

As of 2024, further funds are being incubated in Eastern Europe, and with support from the Eurasian Economic Union, early-stage work is also underway in the Middle East and North Africa.

in 2010 Miller relocated from London back to the United States, settling in Boston, Massachusetts and is currently developing funds to help support United States military veterans and Native Americans.

Awards

Honorary Doctor of Laws, University of Warwick, 2014

Distinguished Alumni Award, University of Kansas Business School, 2016