MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Impact Investment Fund Managers Calvert, Cordes and Giving Assets Plan to Establish “Global Impact 50” Alongside Rockefeller Foundation to Measure Social, Environmental and Financial Impacts of Impact Investment

A group of United States-based impact investment fund managers, namely the Calvert Foundation, the Cordes Foundation and Giving Assets Inc, recently announced plans to collaboratively establish the Global Impact 50, a global index for measuring the social, environmental and financial impacts of the top 50 impact investment fund managers. The initiative will be “supported” by the nonprofit Rockefeller Foundation, and its “objective will be to unleash $2 billion of new capital by 2016 to help address urgent global challenges.” The Rockefeller Foundation’s President, Ms Judith Rodin, explained the objective further, saying “[t]he Global Impact 50 will catalyze capital for impact investments and contribute significantly to Rockefeller’s work to expand social capital markets to help solve the world’s pressing challenges on a broader scale” [1].

By Lindsey Shaughnessy, Research Associate

About the Calvert Foundation: The Calvert Foundation provides loans to organizations that provide affordable housing, microfinance, small business loans, and community facilities. The fund is offered by the Calvert Social Investment Foundation, a private US foundation founded in 1995 with the support of the Ford, MacArthur and Mott Foundations. Investment in the Fund comes in the form of donations and notes held by individuals and organizations, including Washington Mutual Bank, Ameritas Life Insurance Corp. and Gray Ghost Microfinance Fund, LLC.

About the Cordes Foundation: The Cordes Foundation, established in 2006, is a US-based grant-making organization that aims to advance social entrepreneurship and impact investment efforts globally.

About Giving Assets Inc: Giving Assets Inc is a nonprofit impact-investment-oriented fund established by Tim Freundlich, who has previously worked with the Calvert Foundation, Good Capital and SOCAP. US-based Giving Assets serves as the public charity host for the impact investment fund index, the Global Impact 50.

About the Rockefeller Foundation: The Rockefeller Foundation, founded in 1913, is a US-based nonprofit organization whose mission is to “promote the well-being” of humanity through “smart globalization”. The Foundation operates around the world. Its efforts are overseen by an independent Board of Trustees and led by a team drawn from scholarly, scientific and professional disciplines. By year-end 2008, the Rockefeller Foundation had USD 3.1 billion in total assets, up from USD 4.6 billion in 2007, with annual grants of USD 137 million.

Sources and Additional Resources:

[1] PR Newswire, “Launch of Global Impact 50 Index WIll Spur Increase in Investments with Social and Financial Return”, September 21, 2010. http://finance.einnews.com/article.php?pid=169757

Global Impact 50, 2010. http://www.global50.org/

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