Many foundations of all sizes have begun to use investments, as well as grantmaking, to expand their philanthropic impact. At the same time, governments, nonprofits and other mission-driven organizations continue to expand the use of investment-based models to finance portions of their work. The practice of impact investing continues to mature at a rapid pace, with the IRS last month issuing additional positive guidance which may encourage more foundations to use these powerful tools. Even so, entering unfamiliar terrain can be intimidating.
The Forbes Funds, with the generous support of the Benedum Foundation, has just completed the first phase of a research project to explore the readiness of regional foundations to consider or practice impact investing, as well as opportunities in the impact investing landscape that may be relevant to the needs of our region and its nonprofits.
On 11/10/15 Matt Zieger, Vice President of The Forbes Funds, and Tony Macklin, former Executive Director of the Roy A. Hunt Foundation and lead researcher on this project, joined GWP members to give us an overview of their first-hand interviews and research with the regional foundation community. We discussed the current state of impact investing nationally; reviewing highlights of interviews with regional funders; and finding out about existing practices, areas of interest, challenges and barriers identified by the region’s foundations.
Slides from the presentation can be accessed below. If you are interested in discussing next steps for regional learning and engagement around the use of impact investing regionally, please feel free to connect with GWP. Additionally, both Matt (zieger@forbesfunds.org) and Tony (tony@tonymacklin.com) are happy to discuss the findings from the first phase of the regional research project and ideas for next steps.
| Related Materials |
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 GWP TFF 2015-Nov IMPINV Presentation_final.pdf |