Investing for Impact
EGA releases new C-SocPhil research report on “Impact Investing” by environmental grantmakers
Cambridge, MA — The Center for Social Philanthropy announces the release of a new report on asset-mobilization strategies by environmental funders, commissioned by the Environmental Grantmakers Association (EGA), with funding from Merck Family Fund and Rockefeller Brothers Fund.
“Investing for Impact: A Snapshot of EGA Members’ Leveraged Investment Strategies” provides a summary of a preliminary survey of EGA-member foundations that are involved in fully leveraged philanthropic strategies of program-related investment (PRI), mission-related social, environmental and community investing (MRI), and active ownership initiatives such as proxy voting, filing shareholder resolutions, and engaging on issues of corporate accountability through investor coalitions such as the Investor Network on Climate Risk, the Carbon Disclosure Project, and the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment.
The report presents data from a targeted cross-section of EGA’s membership, representing approximately 20 percent of all members and one-third of the association’s total member assets, estimated at $200 billion.
To support innovation in the area of mission-aligned investing, the Environmental Grantmakers Association has launched “The Other 95%,” an internal program to facilitate the sharing of resources and information about strategies for leveraging philanthropic assets more fully to tackle today’s pressing environmental challenges. As part of that initiative, EGA commissioned the Center for Social Philanthropy to conduct this preliminary study of EGA members that have begun to use asset-based investment strategies to advance their philanthropic missions more fully.
The Center for Social Philanthropy’s Director Joshua Humphreys, a lecturer at Harvard University, served as principal investigator and lead author of the report.
Dr. Humphreys presented these new research findings at the Environmental Grantmakers Association Fall Retreat at the Mohonk Mountain House in New Paltz, New York, on September 22, 2008.
