Imfino News

BETHESDA, MD July 12, 2018 – ImpactAssets, a nonprofit financial services firm that increases the flow of capital into investments delivering financial, social and environmental returns, today announced the roll-out of the Giving Fund Portfolio Directory, a listing of more than 300 cutting-edge impact investments.

Developed in partnership with Toniic, the global action community for impact investors, the online searchable directory represents $425 million in impact investments recommended by donors through the ImpactAssets Giving Fund, as of December 31, 2017.

The directory highlights the rapid growth of Custom Investments, an innovative investment option that allows donors to source and recommend direct investments into private mission-driven businesses, impact funds and nonprofit organizations that are committed to measuring and reporting their financial returns as well as social and environmental impact. In the first six months of 2018, donors made 45 custom investments in 42 companies, averaging two new investments each week and on pace for a record year.

“The Giving Fund Portfolio Directory is one of the most comprehensive and accessible impact investing databases available at no cost to users,” said Eric Meissner, Director, Custom Investments and Business Analytics at ImpactAssets. “It allows users to look under the hood at some of the most innovative impact investing deals being done and it demonstrates the real world impact our donors are making every day.”

Of particular note, approximately 31% of the impact investments in the directory are in women-led companies. In addition, a majority of “direct” private debt and equity impact funds listed in the directory have women CEOs, (EcoEnterprises Fund, Ecotrust Forest Management, Elevar Equity) or disproportionally benefit underserved women (Community Investment Management, Microvest). These numbers are significantly higher than other business and gender metrics, such as the number of women Fortune 500 CEOs (six percent) or the amount of venture capital that goes to women-led companies (five percent).

The Giving Fund Portfolio Directory empowers investors to target their search by Women CEO/Co-Founder, geography, asset class, UN Sustainable Development Goals and other criteria. Investors can also focus in on different types of investment vehicles – whether a direct investment, private equity fund or mutual fund – and target investments based on liquidity profiles.

The Giving Fund Portfolio Directory builds on a tradition at ImpactAssets of providing open access to investment data that began with the IA 50, a free, online database for investors and financial advisors that features a diversified listing of 50 private capital fund managers that deliver social and environmental impact as well as financial returns. Now in its seventh year, the IA 50 features funds with an estimated $29.2 billion in assets in 2017, nearly triple the assets in the IA 50 2016 listing.

“As impact investing has grown rapidly in recent years, ImpactAssets has remained a trusted resource for impact investors of all experience levels,” said Meissner. “Objective data is critical to helping investors make informed investment decisions, and through the portfolio directory and the IA 50, we are helping to catalyze the growth of impact investing by creating a centralized information source in a fragmented field.”

About ImpactAssets

ImpactAssets is a nonprofit financial services firm that increases the flow of capital into investments delivering financial, social and environmental returns. ImpactAssets’ donor advised fund (“The Giving Fund”) and field-building initiatives enable philanthropists, other asset owners and their wealth advisors advance social or environmental change through impact investment and philanthropy. The Giving Fund currently has upwards of $450M in assets from more than 1,000 donor advised funds.

ImpactAssets, Inc. acknowledges and is grateful for the support from Toniic, which provided the code to its Toniic Diirectory in order to help ImpactAssets, Inc. launch this version of the Portfolio Directory. ImpactAssets, Inc. is a Toniic member and provides data to the Toniic Diirectory, a publicly accessible online searchable directory with over 1,700 impact investments across all asset classes sourced from the portfolios of Toniic members, especially 100% Impact Network participants.