Lorna Clark, PEARonline and Sarah Clarke, Foundation Fundraising Services
A fundraising data room is a collection of marketing materials. It contains the information your prospective LP needs to evaluate your fund and prepare their investment recommendation. To get started you should collect the following information:
- Investment case studies
- Cash flows
- Team CVs and Team analysis
- Investment manuals and any other documents that feed into the due diligence questionnaire
We suggest that you tackle these documents in the order listed above; start with the items that will take the longest to put together and involve the most input from your team. Gather all the information that you will need from the investment team at the outset so that you don’t have to keep bothering them later on.
What to Include in Your Fundraising Data Room
The following list is a guide to the type of content that an experienced LP might typically expect to see.
Section 1 – Fund
1.a Private Placement Memorandum (PPM)
1.b Pitch Book
1.c Due Diligence Questionnaire (DDQ)
1.d Structure Chart
1.e ESG policy[*]
1.f List of key contacts and contact details
1.g Evidence of ILPA compliance[†]
1.h Evidence of SRI policy – eg UNPRI letter
Section 2 – Organisation
2.a PPMs for previous funds
2.b Schedule of previous LPs by fund
2.c Organisation chart
2.d Details of any cornerstone relationship
2.e Investment/ exit LP notification*
2.f Disaster recovery plan
2.g Compliance manual
2.h Risk manual/ matrix
- Historic LP reporting
2.j AGM materials
2.k Carried interest[‡]***
2.l Management company budget***
2.m Compensation Agreements***
Section 3 – Team
3.a Team CVs
3.b Investment/ Operational/ Scientific/ Expert Advisers’ CVs
3.c Team Analysis
3.d Deal attribution analysis
3.e Reference list
Section 4 – Market
4.a Third-party market reports
4.b In-house market reports
4.c Competition analysis
Section 5 – Investment Strategy & Process
5.a Breakdown of investments and/or deal flow by key investment criteria[§]*
5.b Dealflow log/ analysis
5.c Pipeline
5.d PIRs and FIRs – Preliminary and Final Investment Recommendations
5.e Exit recommendations
5.f DD reports / DD packs
5.g Schedule of non-completed investments
5.h 100 day plans
5.i Internal reporting/ dashboards on portfolio companies
5.j Investment manual
Section 6 – Track Record and Warehoused Investments
6.a Investment Case Studies
6.b Deal data sheet
6.c Track record cash-flows
6.d Track record analysis and benchmarking*
6.e Value add analysis
6.f Value creation analysis
6.g Schedule of unrealised investments
6.h Unrealised companies’ audited accounts (where available)
6.i Basis for valuations
Section 7 – Legals
7.a Draft LPA
7.b Side letters
7.c Finalised LPAs
Section 8 –Third Party Reference Checks*
8.a Reference Pack
Read our article to learn more about what makes a data room LP friendly.
Want to know about the elements to think about before you start building your data room? Read How To Get the Most Out of Your Fundraising Data Room.
Want to work with PEARonline? Schedule a demo today.
[*] Optional but increasingly important to LPs
[‡] *** Usually made available only on request to LPs that have shown commitment to the process
[§] *Optional