Posted on July 02, 2012 by PM Team
Expanding impact through collaboration
A new partnership of three major philanthropic organisations hopes to expand their impact through pooling resources and expertise.
The Council on Foundations has announced partnerships with two
social impact investment organisations, the Global Impact Investing
Network (GIIN) and the Mission Investors Exchange.
The three organisations have different areas of expertise,
systems and reach to bring to the table. GIIN is dedicated to
increasing the scale and effectiveness of impact investing and
serves as a forum for identifying and addressing the systemic
barriers that hinder the impact investing industry's efficiency and
effectiveness. Mission Investors Exchange is a membership
organisation for foundations and mission investing organisations
that use or are learning to use programme-related investment (PRI)
and mission-related investment (MRI) as strategies to accomplish
their philanthropic goals.
The Council's membership represents approximately $300 billion
in assets as well as a network of knowledge and philanthropic
leadership. By establishing partnerships with GIIN and the Mission
Investors Exchange, the Council will be able to provide information
and resources to its membership in the impact-investing arena,
expanding on existing programming around grants, partnerships,
policy, thought-leadership, and impact.
"Foundations pioneered PRIs nearly 50 years ago and today many
more are bringing larger amounts of below-market and market-rate
investment capital to the table to create social impact," says Jeff
Clarke, interim president and CEO of the Council on Foundations.
"Taking note of the market opportunity, a growing number of private
investors are entering the social impact domain, and our three
organisations want to ensure that foundations continue to evolve
their special role in the space."
The first fruit of this collaboration will be a webinar on 26th
July co-hosted by the Council on Foundations and Mission Investors
Exchange featuring three prominent figures in the mission investing
space. "The Council is committed to working with partners to build
philanthropy's influence and best serve our collective
memberships," says Clarke. "The key components focus on combining
the Council's reach with our partners' expertise to build knowledge
and capacity in the field, but we are excited to see these new
partnerships evolve."