How do philanthropic venture capitalists choose their portfolio companies?

This paper examines the deal origination and selection process adopted by philanthropic venture capitalists; this is then compared to that adopted by venture capitalists. Results obtained from a survey addressed to the European and US population of philanthropic venture capitalists suggest that these partly originate and select deals like venture capitalists. However, different deal origination criteria not traditionally used by venture capitalists emerge, i.e., incubation and direct creation of an organization in the event of not finding a suitable one. Furthermore, selection variables such as "deal terms" and "technology" are not as important as in venture capital.