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Viewpoint: Nonprofit Earned-Income Ventures Aren’t Rockets: Another Launchpad Failure
Hailed as a potential game changer, ImpactUs fell apart eight months after opening even though the impact-investing intermediary had the backing of the MacArthur Foundation, Ford Foundation, Kellogg Foundation, Open Road Alliance, Enterprise Community Partners, and City First Enterprises. Another firm is picking up the pieces, so it may not be a total loss, but why did the initial effort flame out so quickly? Here, John MacIntosh advances some tenets for nonprofits to follow to give their venture activities a greater chance of success.
- Categories
- Investing
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Just desserts – Sara Lee foundation to invest all assets into social change
“How we invest our assets and leverage our influence as an investor are powerful tools to make that change to happen.”
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- Investing
- Region
- North America
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Viewpoint: Foundation Impact Investing Is Gaining Steam. But Can Proponents Answer These Four Questions?
This week, it’s the Nathan Cummings Foundation making a move. And it’s going all in, pledging to “align 100 percent of our nearly half-billion dollar endowment with our mission.” NCF is the largest foundation to take this step, and it follows most directly in the footsteps of the F.B. Heron Foundation, which made the shift to 100 percent alignment under the leadership of Clara Miller. In contrast, the other major foundations engaged in impact investing—an increasingly long list—have mostly committed only small portions of their endowments to this approach.
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- Investing
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Private Wealth Firm Abbot Downing Turns Focus to Social Impact
Abbot Downing, the Minneapolis-based private wealth arm of Wells Fargo & Co. for individuals and families with at least US$50 million in investable assets, is responding with a “social impact analysis” center within its revamped family governance practice, the Institute of Family Culture, according to Arne Boudewyn, head of the practice.
- Categories
- Investing
- Tags
- ESG, impact investing, philanthropy
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Press release: Convergence Design Funding generates USD 116M of blended finance investments for global development
Convergence's grant program, Design Funding, is establishing itself as the nerve centre for the next generation of blended finance structures. Since 2016, blended finance vehicles supported by Convergence have raised about USD 116M of investments from public, philanthropic, and private investors.
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- Investing
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When Nonprofits Have A Financial Emergency, There’s Now A Fund To Bail Them Out
Nonprofits and social enterprises generally lack extra funds to help out if things go wrong. Unlike traditional businesses, it’s hard to develop a rainy-day fund when donors (or investors) expect most of your money to toward changing lives.
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Melinda Gates Launches Initiative to Reduce Poverty With New Technology
Melinda Gates has launched a high-level international commission to spark new thinking on how developing countries can best harness new technologies to reduce poverty. The wife of Microsoft founder and philanthropist Bill Gates spoke at the launch of the commission in Nairobi on Thursday.
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- Technology
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‘Blended’ finance is key to achieving global sustainability goals, says report
In a report to be presented on Wednesday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, the Business and Sustainable Development Commission found that private sector investors could take advantage of blended finance to gain access to rapidly growing markets in the developing world.
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