The GIIRS Pioneer Investors are a diverse group of global private equity investors and credit providers including mainstream global financial institutions, foundations, family offices, leaders in social finance, a multilateral development bank. All GIIRS Pioneer Investors have declared an investment preference for GIIRS-rated funds and companies as a part of their impact investing strategies.
The Annie E. Casey Foundation is a private charitable organization, dedicated to helping build better futures for disadvantaged children in the United States. The primary mission of the Foundation is to foster public policies, human-service reforms, and community supports that more effectively meet the needs of today's vulnerable children and families. The Foundation has allocated 5% of its endowment to impact investing.
Armonia uses capital to promote novel ways of investing - incorporating the organization's values of connection, holism, and deep service to people and environment. In the process, Armonia hopes to be a catalyst in the 'impact investing' space by engaging with like-minded organizations. Since 2007, Armonia has seeded and invested in a number of sustainable funds, companies, and projects including Savory Institute, Root Capital, SJF Ventures, IceStone, RSF, New Resource Bank, TBL Capital, Capital Institute, and NRDC.
Calvert Foundation was founded 15 years ago on the principle that poverty can be alleviated through investment. As a trusted financial partner, Calvert Foundation manages more than $500 million of investments while helping its clients improve the lives of people around the world. Like a traditional financial institution, Calvert Foundation provides loans to clients, specifically community organizations with a proven track record of making a difference. What makes Calvert Foundation unique is its Community Investment Note, which starts at just $20 and is available in various terms and rates up to 2 percent. At maturity, investors get their money back with interest. While invested, their dollars are hard at work revitalizing poor communities in all 50 U.S. states and over 100 countries, reversing inequality and creating hope and opportunity where it's needed most.
The DOEN Foundation's ambition is to help build a sustainable world in which everyone can participate. DOEN promotes sustainable, social and cultural pioneers among others with the revenues of the Dutch Postcode Lottery. DOEN promotes people and enterprises that take the lead in the field of sustainable, cultural and social innovation. DOEN seeks out these innovators, supports and inspires them and brings them together.
Tom Bird and Ken Saxon built Farm Capital Services following the conclusion of their MBA program at Stanford University. Since 1988, the team has concentrated their efforts on building an organization that contributes to the development of entrepreneurs, while simultaneously focusing on community impact through its investments. Farm Capital Services believes that a successful organization requires a balance between vision and execution. To balance vision and execution, an organization needs strong leadership, a well-crafted strategy, and skillful communications. And the law of the harvest applies: You reap what you sow.
The Gatsby Charitable Foundation is an endowed grant-making trust. Gatsby's grant-making in the UK supports research on plant science and neuroscience, science and engineering education, government effectiveness, and mental health and the arts. Additionally, Gatsby has a significant program supporting African economic development. Gatsby has funded programs in Africa since 1986 with the aim of stimulating economic growth. Gatsby uses Program-Related Investment as a complementary instrument to strengthen its initiatives, with early allocations going to AAC and to microfinance institutions across East Africa.
The Ghana Venture Capital Trust Fund was established by the Government of Ghana in 2004 to provide low cost financing to small and medium-sized enterprises in the country. The Fund’s mission is to create a vibrant and well-structured venture capital industry boasting investments in various sectors, leading to poverty reduction through job, wealth creation and a collateral growth in government revenues. Following this core mandate, the Fund provides credit and equity financing for businesses and support activities and programs for the promotion of venture capital financing in Ghana.
Halloran Philanthropies invests in initiatives that advance the well being of communities by integrating social innovation with comprehensive business models. We support change-making solutions led by outstanding social entrepreneurs addressing issues related to income generation, financial inclusion, clean energy and water, agriculture, education, housing and health primarily in Mexico, Colombia, Brazil, India, Africa and the United States.
The Impact Investing Foundation is a small family foundation. The Foundation's mission is to use its capital to improve life by alleviating poverty, creating access to economic opportunity for underserved people and communities, rebuilding vibrant local communities, protecting and restoring endangered environments, and building sustainable and just agriculture and food systems. The Foundation uses both its investment endowment and its grant making resources to maximize its direct impact on the lives of small groups of individuals and to drive new systems and institutions capable of advancing its mission. A core component of the Foundation's mission is to provide an example for other foundations interested in using their investment portfolios to further their mission by making impact investments. The Foundation believes that we must measure what matters. Therefore, the Foundation requires its direct and fund investments to measure and report their impact using rigorous, transparent, comprehensive, comparable, and independent third party standards. Its preferred system for measuring impact is GIIRS Ratings & Analytics.
The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) supports efforts by Latin America and the Caribbean to reduce poverty and inequality by targeting development in a sustainable, climate-friendly way. Established in 1959, the Bank is the largest source of development financing for the region, with a strong commitment to achieve measurable results, increased integrity, transparency and accountability. While considered a traditional bank in many ways, it is positioned as a unique partner to entrepreneurs and organizations through its extensive services, such as grants, technical assistance, research and, through the Multilateral Investment Fund, investments in seed and venture capital funds.
J.P. Morgan is the investment banking arm of JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM), a leading global financial services firm with assets of $2.2 trillion and operations in more than 60 countries. The Firm is a leader in investment banking, financial services for consumers, small-business and commercial banking, financial transaction processing, asset management and private equity. A component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, JPMorgan Chase & Co. serves millions of consumers in the United States and many of the world's most prominent corporate, institutional and government clients under its J.P. Morgan and Chase brands. Information about J.P. Morgan is available at www.jpmorganchase.com
The KL Felicitas Foundation provides a variety of support services and tools to help scale impact enterprises and educate and empower impact investors. The Foundation believes that a grass-roots approach can be more successful and sustainable top-down approach and that cross-sector partnerships and hybrid solutions have greater potential to achieve lasting results. The Foundation considers the holistic impact of the Foundation's work, including social, environmental, economic and community dimensions. In emulating the social enterprises in which they invest, they want to take an entrepreneurial approach, with measured risks and the potential for significant impact. As of December 31, 2010, 65% of KL Felicitas Foundation assets were allocated to Impact Investing.
Just as the W.K. Kellogg Foundation awards grants to advance its mission of improving the lives of vulnerable children, its mission-driven investing effort to reinforce that same goal goes beyond traditional grantmaking to invest endowment dollars in enterprises that both realize market rates of return and improve the lives of vulnerable children. In 2007, the Kellogg Foundation earmarked an initial $100 million in endowment dollars for mission investments – $25 million for investments in the southern Africa region and $75 million for investments in the United States. Established in 1930, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation (www.wkkf.org) supports children, families and communities as they strengthen and create conditions that propel vulnerable children to achieve success as individuals and as contributors to the larger community and society. Grants are concentrated in the United States, southern Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean.
Prudential Investments® is part of Prudential Financial, which is recognized by millions for its heritage of helping people grow and protect their wealth for more than 130 years. Prudential Investments offers a broad spectrum of mutual funds that can be used to build diversified portfolios that help address a wide range of investor needs. Since 1976 Prudential has has a formal Social Investments program to make investment that support and improve communities. Social Investments collaborates with partners who share the dedication to create healthy, sustainable communities. These investments support projects that develop and preserve affordable housing, improve access to quality education, and connect neighborhoods and residents to mainstream economic opportunities. To learn more about Prudential's Social Investment program click here.
The Rockefeller Foundation's mission to promote the well-being of people throughout the world has remained unchanged since its founding in 1913. Today, that mission is applied to an era of rapid globalization. Our vision is that this century will be one in which globalization's benefits are more widely shared and its challenges are more easily weathered. To realize this vision, the Foundation seeks to achieve two fundamental goals in our work. First, we seek to build resilience that enhances individual, community and institutional capacity to survive, adapt, and grow in the face of acute crises and chronic stresses. Second, we seek to promote growth with equity in which the poor and vulnerable have more access to opportunities that improve their lives. In order to achieve these goals, the Foundation constructs its work into time-bound initiatives that have defined objectives and strategies for impact. These initiatives address challenges that lie either within or at the intersections of five issue areas: basic survival safeguards, global health, environment and climate change, urbanization, and social and economic security. For more information, please visit http://www.rockefellerfoundation.org. In addition to making impact investments through its PRI Fund, the Rockefeller Foundation has led an initiative to "Harness the Power of Impact Investing" since late 2008. To learn more about this initiative please visit click here.
RSF Social Finance is a nonprofit financial services organization dedicated to transforming the way the world works with money. Inspired by the work of Rudolf Steiner, RSF offers investing, lending, and giving services that generate positive social and environmental impact while fostering community and collaboration among participants. In partnership with our investors and donors, RSF has made $230 million in loans and over $100 million in grants since 1984 to for-profit and nonprofit social enterprises working in the areas of Food & Agriculture, Education & the Arts, and Ecological Stewardship. Underlying all our work is a spirited conversation about the role that money can play in the development of humanity.
Sarona is a private equity firm, investing growth capital in companies and private equity funds in frontier and emerging markets around the world. Our particular focus is the small to mid-market companies that meet the growing needs of the rising middle class in those markets. Our goal is to achieve superior returns by creating world class companies employing highly progressive business strategies, and operating to the highest standards of business, ethical, social and environmental excellence. Sarona and its predecessors have developed a wealth of experience and knowledge through 60 years of private investments in frontier markets.
The Tony Elumelu Foundation is an Africa-based and African-funded not-for-profit organization dedicated to the promotion and celebration of excellence in business leadership and entrepreneurship across Africa. African business leaders and entrepreneurs are identified and groomed to achieve the Foundation's central objective of meaningfully affecting Africa's prosperity. The Foundation operates through a series of programs and initiatives to generate action and capital that fosters a more competitive African private sector. As the African champion for impact investing, The Tony Elumelu Foundation is an innovator in this new and emerging hybrid of philanthropy generating economic prosperity and social wealth. Unlike other philanthropies, the Foundation sees grants as only one of a set of effective philanthropic tools and believes that for the start-up and small and growing business segments, impact investing can be a more sustainable means of capitalization because of the entrepreneurial rigor that comes with requiring a financial return.
Headquartered in Zurich and Basel, UBS is a global firm providing financial services to private, corporate and institutional clients in over 50 countries. Values-Based Investing is a service of UBS Philanthropy and Values-Based Investing, the dedicated in-house unit of over 30 experts offering solutions which cater to all personal wishes and aspirations for making a positive, measurable difference towards a more sustainable world: from strategic charitable giving and philanthropy to investments. Values-Based Investing (VBI) supports clients of UBS in aligning their personal values and views about sustainability with their investment decisions and VBI is therefore an investment philosophy that takes into account ethical, environmental and social criteria alongside financial criteria when formulating investment objectives.
As one of Canada’s largest credit unions, Vancity strives to find ways to use all our resources, people and capital to strengthen member wealth and well-being. It means investing strategically in the communities where our members live and work. It calls on us to serve the broad spectrum of organizations that make up the rich tapestry of our communities by providing a continuum of financing solutions. Through Vancity Capital Corporation we provide growth capital in the form of debt and equity investments to small and medium sized enterprises with a mission to create positive social or environmental impact. Financing solutions range from $250,000 to $5,000,000 with larger investments available through syndicated partnerships. Whether it’s subordinated debt, mezzanine financing, convertible debentures or equity investments, we are here to help. Learn more.