Council on Foundations Partners with Global Impact Investing Network and Mission Investors Exchange to Promote Investing for Social, Environmental, and Financial Returns
The Council on Foundations today announced important partnerships with two leaders advancing social impact, the Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN) and the Mission Investors Exchange. The Council will add its complementary platform to amplify, convene, and connect around the good work of these two leaders.
Impact and mission investments, which include both below-market program-related investments (PRIs) and market-rate mission-related investments (MRIs), play a vital role in financing the ideas, organizations, people, and activities that create impact. Ultimately, the two partnerships will draw on decades of collective experience to catalyze thought leadership and increase the amount of financial capital invested in communities.
Reaching a wide array of impact investors from pension funds to foundations, 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 organization for foundations and mission investing organizations that use or are learning to use PRI and MRI investing as a strategy 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. Taking note of the market opportunity, a growing number of private investors are entering the social impact domain, and our three organizations want to ensure that foundations continue to evolve their special role in the space." said Jeff Clarke, interim president and CEO of the Council on Foundations. "Together we can increase awareness, create knowledge, build networks, and catalyze broad adoption of investing for social, environmental, and financial returns."
"The Council's support for increasing awareness of the value of program and mission-related investing is a tremendously important development for the philanthropic sector," said Luther M. Ragin Jr., chief executive officer of GIIN. "We are thrilled to provide resources to Council members interested in mobilizing more of their assets and those of other institutional investors to fund social and environmental solutions."
"The Council on Foundations’ membership base and broad reach make it an excellent partner in our work to facilitate mission investing in foundations of every type and size," said Peter Berliner, managing director of Mission Investors Exchange. "By working with the Council, we can better help foundations cross traditional boundaries among sectors, investing, and philanthropy. Together we have the potential to drive new sources of capital into areas of need."
