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Global Impact Investing Network Launches Study on Impact Investing Market Landscape in South Asia (December 18) Mission Investors Exchange partner the Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN), in partnership with Dalberg Global Development Advisors, launched today a report that provides a “state of the market” landscape analysis of the impact investing industry in South Asia. The Landscape for Impact Investing in South Asia, which captures a total of $8.9 billion in deployed impact investment capital in six countries, indicates a diverse but growing impact investing market across South Asia, a region that presents enormous opportunities with a significant young and potentially economically active population. The most comprehensive study of the impact investment activity in the region to date, the full report will include a chapter for each of the six countries studied—Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. Today’s release includes country chapters on Bangladesh, Nepal, and Pakistan as well as an introductory section and Executive Summary; chapters on India, Myanmar, and Sri Lanka are forthcoming in early 2015. (read more)

Conservation Finance Experts: Ag, Water, Climate Investments Trending Up, But More Deals Needed (December 18) Conservation impact investing is a diverse and fast-growing field, but remains "nascent" and years away from reaching its full potential, according to the authors of the Investing in Conservation study released last month. "There are trends that could see this number grow considerably," said Ricardo Bayon, co-founder of EKO Asset Management, one of the authors, in a webinar Wednesday. "The problem in this space is not about money; the money is out there... What's missing here are deals. There's a shortage of deals." Investments featured in the report fall broadly across three categories: sustainable food and fiber production; habitat conservation; and water quantity and quality conservation. Sustainable food and fiber, particularly related to agricultural land and production, is growing rapidly... (read more)

New Report: Mission Investors Take Aim at 'Bottom Line' of U.S. Poverty (December 11) As economic mobility has stagnated in the United States, a skyrocketing interest in impact investments related to boosting education, employment and health for low-income communities has emerged, according to a report released by the Aspen Institute on Thursday. “The Bottom Line: Impacting Investing for Economic Mobility in the U.S.," published with support from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, surveys 39 respondents about investing tools and strategies that aim to "move the needle on family economic security." Of the respondents, 63% represent private or community foundations, including Mission Investors Exchange members The F.B. Heron Foundation, The Greater Cincinnati Foundation, The McKnight Foundation, the Silicon Valley Community Foundation and others. (read more)

Massachusetts Launches 2nd Pay for Success Program: $3.5M Aimed at Chronic Homelessness (December 10) The Pay for Success momentum continues this week, as Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick announced a $3.5 million in philanthropic funding and private capital investments to reduce chronic homelessness. This program, the state's second Pay for Success contract, will start next year with 50 housing units, aimed at scaling up to 500 by 2017. The goal of the program is to stabilize the lives of up to 800 longtime homeless individuals — nearly half the state’s chronically homeless population — by providing them with permanent housing while at the same time reducing the amount of taxpayer money that would otherwise have been spent on shelter, Medicaid, and other emergency services for these individuals. (read more)

Pay for Success Programs Get $4M Boost at White House Summit (December 5) The Omidyar Network and The Pershing Square Foundation announced a $4 million grant to boost Social Finance's Pay-for-Success programs, which use social impact bonds to improve employment rates, reduce recidivism and tackle other social problems faced by at-risk populations. Social Finance, a Mission Investors Exchange affiliate member, is currently developing projects in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York, South Carolina and Washington, D.C., and exploring opportunities to benefit veterans, first-time mothers and the long-term unemployed. (read more)

Recent Blog Posts

What Can Foundations Do to Foster Community Investments? -- David Wood, Director of Initiative for Responsible Investment -- December 22: We’ve just published a short paper with the Kresge Foundation outlining different roles (we settled on 10) that foundations can play to foster community investment. The paper is an extension of work begun with Living Cities on how to think about the systems that support and make community investment possible – what we called the community investment capital absorption capacity of places. The new 10 Roles paper focuses on how one influential stakeholder – organized philanthropy – can strengthen the community investment system. The paper describes how foundations can use their grant-making, convening power and influence—as well as their ability to make mission investments—to make investment in marginalized places and people more effective. (read more)

Philanthropy Northwest: All In for Mission Investing -- Jeff Clarke, CEO, Philanthropy Northwest -- December 18: Impact investing is quickly evolving as an important global movement that redefines how socially motivated individuals and institutions can use their financial capital to positively shape their communities. In the philanthropic sector, we’ve long referred to the alignment of mission and financial capital as mission investing. When philanthropists open themselves to asking, “Are there ways other than grants for us to structure and deploy philanthropic capital to deliver our mission and strengthen communities?” it can spur innovation in investment and program strategy, organizational structure and community engagement. If this innovation around financial capital is important within the rapidly changing world in which you work, how are we at Philanthropy Northwest working to be a more effective partner in support of your mission investing work? Our board of directors has approved a resolution to invest 100% of our reserves in market-rate cash products aligned with our mission, i.e. institutions and/or products dedicated to building vibrant communities. We’ll be building our mission investing portfolio in 2015, and we’ll share its details on our website as it evolves. We are very excited to be able to “put our money where our mouth is” and we look forward to... (read more)

Beyond Grants: Investing in Children -- Peter Berliner, Managing Director, Mission Investors Exchange -- December 8: My first job after college was working in a group home for teenagers burdened by homelessness, abuse, mental illness and addiction. Many had been victimized by a meager and dysfunctional system of public care. Many were angry, sad and without a lot of hope. They were also spirited, funny and talented. Images of these youths have stayed with me all these years. I imagine that only a few ever lived up to their vast potential. We now know much more about the causes and have devised promising — and even proven — strategies to stem the tide of lost children, but have yet to implement at scale. Mission investors may seem far removed from these runaways and "throwaways," but with the advent of social impact bonds — pay for success programs — we have an important role to play. (read more)

Alternative to Austerity? Portugal Develops Social Innovation Fund -- David Wood, Director, Initiative for Responsible Investment -- December 5: In late September, I had the pleasure of attending a meeting in Lisbon hosted by the Young Foundation and the Plataforma para Crescimento Sustentavel, with support from the European Union, focused on creating "A Strategy for the Civic Economy in Portugal.” Our goal was to explore how the public sector can support new strategies to deliver social services, pegged to the Portuguese government's announcement of a 150 million euro Social Innovation Fund to kickstart new forms of social investment. Since then... (read more)

What is Mission Investing?

The illustration is a rendering of The F. B. Heron Foundation's Mission-Related Investment Continuum.

Mission investments are made by foundations and other mission-based organizations to further their philanthropic goals. Mission investments (like impact investments) include any type of investment that is intended and designed to generate both a measurable social or environmental benefit and a financial return. Mission investments include:

Mission-related investments (MRIs) that are expected to generate a market-rate financial return on investment comparable to an ordinary investment of a similar type and risk profile. They are designed to have a positive impact while contributing to the foundation’s long-term financial stability and growth.
Program-related investments (PRIs) or other concessionary (below-market rate) investments that are primarily made to achieve programmatic rather than financial objectives.

*Impact investments are investments made by any type of investor with the intention of generating both a measureable social or environment benefit along with a financial return. Impact investors include, but are not limited to individuals, foundations, institutions and funds. Impact investing is sometimes used to describe any investment that considers environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors, as well as shareholder advocacy and/or screening.

Learn more here.

Featured Events

Join us for our first Mission Café of 2015!

This 30-minute online exchange on Jan. 21, from 11 to 11:30 a.m. PST will feature the Northwest Area Foundation and Invest Northwest discussing a soon-to-be-released report. Hot beverages and warm conversation welcome.

Free to Mission Investors Exchange members.

More information and RSVP.

Also coming up in 2015...

Visit our Training & Events page for more details.

Published by Mission Investors Exchange

Through voices from the field and an overview of the work, community foundations are invited on a journey through impact investing. Let the Community Foundation Field Guide to Impact Investing: Reflections from the Field and Resources for Moving Forward just be the start of your exploration and activation of new capital tools you find are the right fit for your foundation. The guide's three main sections are (1) Learn, (2) Design and (3) Activate. The guide, published by Mission Investors Exchange and the Council on Foundations, includes 14 case examples from community foundations.

Strategies to Maximize your Philanthropic Capital: A Guide to Program Related Investments is Mission Investors Exchange's first publication. Published in 2012, it's a comprehensive primer to understanding and making program-related investments. This 44-page primer was commissioned by Mission Investors Exchange, authored by Linklaters LLP and underwritten by The Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Explore all Mission Investors Exchange-published resources.

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#FF #BottomLineReport @WK_Kellogg_Fdn @devindthorpe @AspenAscend @FBHeron @GrCinciFdn @McKnightFdn @siliconvalleycf http://t.co/u7aIc3W3P5 — December 26, 2014
Congrats 2 #impinv leader VA Community Capital's Jane Henderson 4 appt 2 Gov's Council on Bridging Nutritional Divide http://t.co/5mPO2deJ0R — December 23, 2014
Grateful for holiday gift from @arabellaadvisor. Looking forward to reading, learning more about @MalalaFund, http://t.co/Efaz4H29HH — December 23, 2014
2014 SURVEYS: What our members have reported abt co-investing, software & other foundation #impinv topics. http://t.co/nj0kBJQJET — December 23, 2014
New! Report by @theGIIN on #impinv mkt landscape in S. Asia. 6 country chapters incl deal data, key interviews, more. http://t.co/JwXx3W0e7o — December 22, 2014

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What's New in Mission Investing?

Recent Blog Posts

What is Mission Investing?

Featured Events

Also coming up in 2015...

Published by Mission Investors Exchange

Featured Infographic

Twitter Feed